Prime Minister Silveria Jacobs met with the Committee of Civil Servant Unions (CCSU) regarding – among other things – the Pension Reform Legislation now at Parliament (see related story). As is the international trend, an ageing population requires adjusting the pension to keep it feasible due to relatively fewer working contributors and more recipients.
The General Pension Fund APS has been working on this issue with government officials for several years and already started an information cycle on what was believed to be the final version.
However, it seems the law proposal needs additional work, judging from concerns voiced by both the labour unions and elected representatives. The prime minister herself had expressed “mixed feelings” when recently presenting the draft ordinance in the legislature.
It appears the main component of raising the pensionable age with a transition arrangement will not be the biggest hurdle, although attention was again asked for the socioeconomic consequences. The change of a pay-out based on the average rather than end salary is another story.
Despite reassurances by experts that this won’t automatically translate to lower income, common sense would at least suggest such in many cases. Because salaries of public sector employees haven’t been adjusted for a while either, there is fear that the future retirement amounts simply won’t suffice.
It was mentioned that 25 per cent of active government personnel earn less than 4,000 Netherlands Antillean guilders per month, referred to as the “unofficial poverty line.” Mind you, that’s close to three times the minimum wage in the private sector.
Jacobs’ rerquesting one month to answer a CCSU letter sent to her predecessor in July 2019 indicates how long it may be before this matter characterised as priority by the Committee for Financial Supervision CFT is finally resolved. As the pension reform was also dropped as condition for Dutch liquidity support, care should be taken not to lose a sense of urgency and with it the necessary momentum.
