The Austrian Court of Auditors looked at the average retirement age in the public sector, a recurring cause for quarrel and concern in the country. State-controlled private businesses, i.e. mostly the Post (ÖPAG) and the railway (ÖBB), are particularly in the controllers’ cross hairs. The report they presented on Wednesday, March 19 shows that 99.5 percent of post workers stop working early. At the ÖBB, the rate is 96.1 percent. In both cases, a little less than 50 percent of early retirements come from health and disability issues. The social partners in the two companies vividly reacted to these statistics, notably pointing to the increase in job hardness.
Early retirement as a general rule. While statutory retirement age is 65, the Court of Auditors found that, in 2012, civil service workers in public or State-controlled businesses retired, in average, at 55.8, i.e. nearly 3 years younger than the national average for all private employees (58.5). At the post, employees also retire at 55.8 in average (55.2 in 2010), 99.5 percent of employees retire early, and 48.9 percent of early retirements are the result of disability. At the ÖBB, workers
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