USSCG: Only those who have 40 years of insurance service can retire

As of today, employees in Montenegro will be able to exercise their right to a pension only if they have 40 years of insurance experience and are at least 61 years old, thanks, as the Union of Free Trade Unions (USSCG) said, to the foolish decision of the Constitutional Court.

"If you were lucky enough to establish an employment relationship between the ages of 18 and 20 and to work continuously (if you are not a woman who is prevented from participating in the labor market in full capacity due to motherhood; if you are not a "victim of transition"; if you are not one (and of those, an average of 11 people, who have been waiting for employment for more than three years), perhaps the conditions set in this way for exercising the right to a pension will not worry you", stated the USSCG.

The workers' association stated that the decision of the Constitutional Court, which revokes the provision of Article 17 paragraph 1 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO), which enabled women to exercise their right to a pension at the age of 64, was foolish.

"Thus, one of the two solutions for retirement, which have always existed in our pension system, is abolished. "Now men and women will have only one solution for retirement, which is 40 years of insurance service and 61 years of life," said the Union.

Bearing in mind that two elements (years of service and age) are a cumulative condition for acquiring the right to an old-age pension, it is easy to conclude that many men, and especially women, will have to work for over 70 years or more in order to acquire the right on retirement.

"Also, by repealing Article 17 paragraph 1 of the PIO Law, it is impossible to apply provision 197đ of the PIO Law, according to which this year women could go on old-age pension when they reach 62 years and six months of life and 15 years of pensionable service, while the following "They could exercise that right at the age of 62 years and nine months, and so every subsequent year with an increase in the age limit by three months, until 2028," explained the USSCG.

The USSCG explained that the repealed provision of the mentioned law gave, exclusively, the possibility for women in Montenegro to exercise their right to a pension upon reaching 64 years of age (and this year also at 62 years and nine months of age).

"Thus, from the age of 64, women in Montenegro could choose whether to remain on the labor market until the age of 66 (like men), or whether they would take the opportunity to retire." The very fact that it was about the choice of the woman herself among the offered options represented indisputable positive discrimination, and not discrimination on the basis of gender, as stated in the decision of the Constitutional Court", said the USSCG.

The role and position of women on the labor market in Montenegro was unfortunately not appreciated by the Constitutional Court, as they claim in the Union, and completely ignored facts such as the fact that women are a vulnerable category on the labor market and that due to their natural need to achieve motherhood exposed to more difficult employment, i.e. frequent cancellations of employment contracts due to pregnancy and maternity leave.

"These are precisely the reasons why a woman, unlike a man, can hardly achieve a full working life (40 years), which the judges of the Constitutional Court lightly ignored. Such a decision is to the detriment of working women exclusively, especially those who work in the economic sector, and contributes to their additional vulnerability, denying them the opportunity to choose that was given to them," the Union warned.

Also, as they claim from that labor association, the Constitutional Court ignores the explanation of the judgments of the European Court of Human Rights in similar cases, in which this court regarded as discrimination the different age for acquiring the right to a pension between men and women exclusively in a situation where women are prevented from to continue working after reaching the prescribed retirement age, which corresponds to the retirement age for men.

"We repeat, in Montenegro, it is precisely women who are given the opportunity to choose, i.e. the opportunity to continue working even after obtaining the conditions for retirement until the age of 66, which represents the upper retirement age for men," the Union stated.

USSCG, according to its representatives, welcomes the views expressed by judges Snežana Armenko and Momirka Tešić, who are in full agreement with the facts and allegations that the Union sent to the Constitutional Court in its letter from October 2020.

"Considering that we are taken aback by this decision of the Constitutional Court and that we have numerous calls and questions from our membership, what steps will the USSCG take to protect employees from the harmful consequences that this bizarre decision brings with it, the USSCG will organize a press conference on Monday at which present more details on this topic," the announcement concludes.