Description
The main aim of the Decent Retirement project is to establish a platform for social dialogue. The developed platform will be used as a fundament from which to further influence policy makers and other stakeholders to make necessary regulatory changes in this narrow regulatory area. The project output is to find a specific solution to the problem of providing decent retirement for workers at difficult and unhealthy working places, and report on a new special retirement system for workers at difficult and unhealthy working places. Furthermore, the activities will increase the quality of workers’ life as well as their life expectancy. The project activities will also increase trust between social partners, which would enable them to find acceptable solutions to the pension reform in due course. The activities are research and analysis of the existing retirement system in Slovenia and a benchmark analysis of the pension systems in the EU and in Norway. The project will also initiate competence development through the organisation of workshops for representatives of the target groups. Publicity and visibility of the project will also be important parts of the project.
Summary of project results
Decent Retirement is a project that aims to develop the social dialogue in Slovenia in the field of retirement of employees in difficult and harmful jobs. The project has been implemented in 2013 with financial support from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism under the leadership of Slovenian Trade union federation Alternativa and with the participation of project partners Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia, the Association of Free Trade Unions of Slovenia, Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities and the Norwegian partner NFL Union. The project involved a number of other institutions and individuals, such as Kapitalska družba (KAD – a government-owned pension fund management company), Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Pension and Disability Insurance of Slovenia and representatives of other unions. The result of the project is the most comprehensive analysis of the system of mandatory supplementary pension insurance (MSPI) in Slovenia.The key findings of the project is that in the current pension insurance system, the excess savings remain on individual accounts while the insufficient savings (to allow paying for the pension due to early retirement) remain uncovered. Some insured persons are consequently denied their basic right from the system – the right to early retirement. However, this is not a problem of the overall lack of funds in the system as this system is relatively expensive. The current contribution rate is 10,55 % or even higher in some cases. The key problem are high costs of this system that are covered by the employers. Our proposal to the policy makers is to make the system cheaper (contribution rate can be lowered) and at the same time abolish all deficits on individual accounts with the introduction of the solidarity fund. This is the key finding and proposal of our research.
Summary of bilateral results
The project involved a number of other institutions and individuals, such as Kapitalska družba (KAD – a government-owned pension fund management company), Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute for Pension and Disability Insurance of Slovenia and representatives of other unions. The result of the project is the most comprehensive analysis of the system of mandatory supplementary pension insurance (MSPI) in Slovenia. The key question of the MSPI system is what is its aim? The conclusion is that certain workers deserve a right to retire early. During the project duration there was an ongoing dialogue that tackles challenges of MSPI, which was one of the result of the project – established a platform for social dialogue where all relevant policy makers are involved. Part of project researches was carried out among employees in difficult and harmful jobs in Slovenia. An analysis of effect of effect of possible different systems on efficiency, distribution and financial effect of their implementation was made and presented to the social partners. A case study of Norwegian retirement system for workers at difficult and unhealthy working places (including answering a survey on the benchmarking of such system) was also presented. This example shows bonuses in a form of lower contribution rate for employers based on their investments into preventing hazardous work conditions. The dialogue took place in four workshops and final conference. The main result was adoption of White paper – an overview of the research findings on the system of mandatory supplementary pension insurance in Slovenia with proposals for its improvement.