The Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Rudolf Hundstorfer has sent a draft law on a new form of “partial retirement” (Teilpension) for consultation to the various departments and to parliament. It is expected to be voted upon before the summer recess. Although the effective retirement age has risen by 13 months since 2014, the idea behind this new law is to create a new retirement provision that will be part time retirement and will be available to those aged 62 and over. This will cost companies about 10% less than the current partial retirement arrangements. The draft law is largely supported by the government coalition partners (conservatives, social democrats). However applying a demographically based bonus/malus principle has not garnered approval and this will be deferred to a later date.
The challenge of delaying retirement age. “With the new broader partial retirement provisions, we hope to retain older workers for longer. This is why today we have launched a consultation process that will continue until May 28 and parliament will vote on it before their summer recess,” last week explained the Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, Rudolf Hundstorfer. The Austrian government has been assiduously studying ways in which it can delay retirement decisions with better but at the same time cost effective conditions for both workers and the public purse.
Do you have information to share with us?