25.06.2018

SUR Council statement on raising the retirement age in the Russian Federation

The Council of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia at its meeting which was held urgently in an extraordinary order, considered the matter of the Government of Russia’s initiative for raising the retirement age in the country. The SUR Council members disagree with the proposed reform and issued a corresponding Statement. The Statement is addressed to the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, Chairman of the Government Dmitry Medvedev and Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly Vyacheslav Volodin.

 

Statement of the Council of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia

on Raising the Retirement Age in the Russian Federation

In connection with the introduction by the Government of the Russian Federation to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the Draft Law “On amendments to certain legal acts of the Russian Federation concerning appointment and payment of pensions”, which provides for increasing retirement age for men to 65 years, and for women – to 63 years, as well as for reduction of current legal bonuses of early retirement for a number of categories of workers, the Council of the Seafarers’ Union of Russia (SUR) has no choice but to express its categorical disagreement with the proposed amendments to the pension laws.

The SUR Council believes that the Draft Law in question pursues a momentary goal of solving the problem of budgetary deficit of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation at the expense of the working population and pensioners.

The SUR Council points out that the Draft Law which affects all working-age population of the country was not the subject of wide public discussion among all strata of civil society, specialists, scientists, experts, representatives of political parties, employers’ amalgamations and trade unions. Even a public discussion of the Draft Law at the Federal Portal for Draft Normative Legal Acts (regulation.gov.ru) was never organized.

Consideration of the Draft Law at the Russian Tripartite Commission on the Regulation of Social and Labor Relations was formal and precocious: all documents were submitted at the very last moment which prevented the Commission members from studying them comprehensively and giving their reasoned comments and suggestions; in violation of regulations and established practice, there was no in-depth preliminary discussion on working groups. In spite of all the above, the issue was brought to the Commission meeting in an accelerated mode on Saturday, 16 June 2018 (which was a weekend day off).

The SUR Council believes that the Government of the Russian Federation would not consider any other ways of replenishing the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and increasing pension payments except reduction of the number of pensioners. Despite the fact that the developers of the draft law state that the Russian Federation allegedly has one of the lowest age thresholds for retirement, in some ex-USSR republics the retirement age is similar (60 years for male workers and 55 years for female ones); in many countries where the entitlement for retirement starts later, the labour legislation provides for a shorter working week. Period of work calculated in hours worked during a worker’s life in Russia is one of the longest in the world, making up to 76,000 working hours.

The SUR Council also points out that the developers of the Draft Law did not take into consideration the overall life expectancy of the able-bodied population: most workers either die before retirement, or by the time it has a whole bunch of chronic diseases which prevent them to continue normal work in their professions. Namely, seafarers are among such workers. The state of domestic health care does not always allow to maintain work capacity of employees up to the time when they reach the retirement age established today.

 

Taking all of the above into consideration, the SUR Council considers it necessary to withdraw the Draft Law in question and return to changing the pension system of the Russian Federation only after careful consideration of all aspects and broad public discussion.

 

 

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