Retiring healthy instead of burned out in unemployment: AK calls for blocked partial retirement to be retained

2023-04-28 06:02:37

Linz (OTS) – Partial retirement offers a good and, above all, healthy transition to retirement. The instrument is absolutely necessary, as not all older employees can work full-time until retirement. The reasons are varied and range from enormous physical and mental stress to working conditions and jobs that are not age-appropriate. AK President Stangl calls on the federal government to stop the abolition of the blocked partial retirement immediately.

Two fifths of all employees consider it (very) unlikely that they will be able to work until they retire. This is a result of the working climate index. In sectors such as gastronomy, mining, paper production, health and social services as well as agriculture and forestry it is even every second person. Partial retirement is one of the most important instruments for enabling a healthy transition to retirement that is appropriate for the elderly. However, the federal government has started to abolish the blocked variant, which the Upper Austrian Chamber of Labor has sharply criticized.

Savings at the expense of employees

The government’s alleged aim is to counteract the shortage of skilled workers and to keep older workers in the labor market longer. But AK President Andreas Stangl warns: “Exactly the opposite will be the case. Due to the stressful working conditions, many older employees do not make it through to retirement or are no longer able to work full-time due to their health.” Partial retirement primarily supported employees with health restrictions in retiring from working life. However, the main reason for the government to put an end to the blocked partial retirement is likely to be motives for cuts: a total of 530 million euros were spent on partial retirement in 2021.

deterioration for many women

Nationwide, 35,600 employees are currently in semi-retirement, almost 23% are in the block variant. In Upper Austria, around 5,400 women and around 3,000 men recently used the instrument of partial retirement, a quarter of whom were blocked. AK President Stangl sees a deterioration, especially for women: “Far more female employees use partial retirement than male employees. The federal government wants to prevent a healthy transition into retirement for those who have mastered the balancing act between work, childcare, household and caring for relatives throughout their lives. As AK, we strictly reject this policy of cuts on the backs of women.”

Consequence of the abolition: volume of work will hardly increase

The now planned abolition of the blocked variant will only marginally increase the available working hours, if at all, and will therefore not contribute to covering the need for skilled workers. Especially not in the short term, because work is still going on at the beginning of the block variant and the free time block only occurs in the final phase. This means that the abolition of the blocked partial retirement would only lead to a minimal increase in the volume of working hours after two years at the earliest.

Deterioration for people in shift work

The blocked variant is the only chance for employees in shift work to go into semi-retirement. “For technical reasons, employees in shift work often have no chance at all of taking advantage of continuous partial retirement due to rigid shift models. A good transition from working life to retirement is made very difficult for these people,” criticizes AK President Andreas Stangl.

In summary: semi-retirement is not a privilege and not a refusal to work, but often the only practicable option for employees to work – with reduced working hours. Ideally until retirement. Therefore, the AK Oberösterreich demands the possibility of partial retirement, also in the block variant, to be retained.