It will be possible to work until the age of 67 again: The adopted amendments to the Labor Law restore an article that was changed in 2021.

Among the amendments to the Labor Law adopted by the Parliament last week, an article was passed that increases the age limit for termination of employment by force of law from 66 to 67 years of age and at least 15 years of service.

This restored the limit that was in effect until June 2021, when the then parliamentary majority lowered the limit for termination of employment in order to make it easier to dismiss some employees of the "former government".

Restoring the retirement age does not mean that employees will have to work an extra year before retirement, as the retirement requirements are defined by the Pension and Disability Insurance Act. This change allows employees to work until their 67th birthday at the most, but to terminate their employment earlier if they meet the retirement requirements.

The 2021 amendment to the law, which lowered the age limit to 66, was adopted without the consent of the Social Council at the time. The Union of Free Trade Unions has since campaigned to return the age limit for termination of employment to 67 by law, which they have repeatedly agreed to with the social partners, but MPs have been unwilling to accept.

The Union of Free Trade Unions told "Vijesti" that they are satisfied that the border has been restored, even though damage has been caused to thousands of workers in the past five years.

They previously pointed out that this shortening of employment caused several problems - for workers who had loans up to the age of 67, and after the change in the law in 66, they had problems with repayment because they dropped from a salary to a pension that was half the amount with the same amount of installments, as well as for workers who were left without that one year of service that was important for them to fulfill the conditions and points, which is why they have a lower pension.

The Pension and Disability Insurance Act now stipulates that everyone who has reached the age of 65 and has at least 15 years of service is entitled to a pension. This means that an employee who is eligible for a pension at the age of 65 does not have to work until the age of 67, but now, with the amendment to the Labour Act, they are given that option.

The new amendment to the Labor Law also allows for the extension of an employment contract after reaching the age of 67 if the employee has not completed 15 years of insurance service and the employment contract lasts until that condition is met.

For the past five years, public administration employees have been able to work until the age of 67 under a special law that applied only to them. In other words, the reduction of the retirement age from 2021 to 66 years in practice only applied to employees in the private sector.

An amendment to the law that would return the limit to 67 years of age was in the Parliament in 2024, but was not adopted.

The Union of Free Trade Unions then appealed to MPs to vote to restore the limit for termination of employment, but to no avail.

They pointed out that in this specific case, it is not about increasing the retirement age, which was the most speculated about at the time, because that age limit is regulated by the Pension and Disability Insurance Law (PIO) and is 65 years old for both women and men.

"The Labor Law, whose amendment we are advocating, does not prescribe the conditions for acquiring the right to an insured person's old-age pension. The provision of the law in question in this specific case exclusively prescribes the conditions when an employee's employment relationship must terminate by force of law, regardless of his or her will or the will of the employer," the Union added.

As they explained then, the proposed amendment to the Labor Law allows employees, only if they wish, to remain in the labor market until they reach the age of 67, and if they do not wish, they can retire whenever they meet the conditions.

"It is an open secret that the age limit for termination of employment by law (in 2021) was lowered from 67 to 66 years of age for political reasons, because there was no valid justification for such action," the Union announced at the time.

This trade union organization also pointed out at the time that this topic should in no way be linked to the inability of young people to access the labor market because their older colleagues, as is often stated, do not want to leave their jobs.

"Access to the labor market for young people in Montenegro is limited primarily by the existence of nepotism and cronyism, which is confirmed by numerous studies conducted on the topic of employment and employment. Ultimately, the choice to remain in the labor market until the age of 67 is made exclusively by employees who are forced to do so, because one year longer in the labor market means one year less of mere survival with a pension that would follow them," the USS statement from 2024 states.

The same MPs who were against it a year and a half ago

In 2024, the Social Council agreed to increase the retirement age from 66 to 67 years of age, and the proposed amendments to the Labor Law were then adopted by the Government and sent to the Parliament.

However, a group of 23 MPs from the Europe Now Movement, Democrats, New Serbian Democracy, Democratic People's Party and Bosniak Party then submitted an amendment deleting this article from the proposal, arguing that returning the age limit for termination of employment to 67 years could create abuses.

"We believe that due to the abuses during the termination of employment, which have occurred in practice so far, we must approach this solution in a way that will minimize them, and in this regard, we are submitting this amendment in order to give the professional public and partners time to find an even better and more precise solution. This will contribute to establishing legal certainty, provide space for establishing coherence in the legal system and strengthening trust among social partners for regulating this important issue, and for adapting the economy in relation to workforce planning," the explanation of their amendment states.

In the end, their amendment was adopted, not the Social Council's proposal. A year and a half later, almost the same deputies voted for the same wording of the article of the law that would return the limit to 67 years.