Poland's ruling party reveals plan to cut retirement age

By Jo Harper

WARSAW (AA) - Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party wants to cut the retirement age by five years, party president Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Friday.

“The road is open,” said Kaczynski after talks with the trade union NSZZ Solidarity.

The PiS head has so far opposed the introduction of such a change.

If the trade union demands are met, Polish women can retire at 53, and men after the age of 58.

PiS lowered the retirement age for the first time in 2017, one of the main promises that enabled it to win the parliamentary elections in 2015. Opposition leader Donald Tusk pledged in January that the Civic Platform (PO) party would not raise Poland’s retirement age if it wins the election this year.

“Another lowering of the retirement age will mean a problem, especially for women, because they will often receive the lowest pensions,” Oskar Sobolewski, founder of the Debata Emerytalna initiative, told daily Gazeta Wyborcza.

The newspaper said that for most Polish women, working until age 55 will mean the minimum pension, which today is about 1,400 Polish zloty ($338.29)

The plan foresees that the insured person could continue paid work even after retirement age.

Poland should follow in the footsteps of other countries that have raised their retirement ages, according to experts. France’s government, for example, has announced plans to raise it from 62 to 64 by 2030.

The 2021 national census showed that the population is shrinking and aging, raising fears of the pressure this will have on the pension system.

According to calculations of Lukasz Waclawik from the Faculty of Management at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, the cost of these changes will amount to PLN 15 billion zloty ($3.62 billion) per year.

“Even rich Germany would not be able to finance it,” he told Gazeta Wyborcza.