Several big employers’ organizations in Germany sounded the alarm: the government’s pension reform bill, which introduces retirement at 63 for people who paid contributions for 45 years, could worsen the growing shortage of skilled workers in Germany and destroy businesses’ recent efforts to keep older workers active for as long as possible. At the Deutsche Bahn for instance, retirement at 63 is already a major cause for concern. The railway could lose, at once next summer, nearly 1,000 employees. Such criticism, echoed by the CDU’s right wing, haven’t changed the mind of Andrea Nahles, SPD Minister for Employment and Social Affairs, who believes this reform is mostly a question of fairness.
Concern at the Deutsche Bahn. Among the DB’s railroaders, the possibility of retiring at 63 instead of 65 without reduction, provided for in the pension reform the government adopted on January 29 (see article No. 8134), is very discussed. A lot of people started working for the rail company when they were 16 or 17 via apprenticeship. Of those aged 60, a lot have been in the company for 45 years – first the Bundesbahn (west) for some or DDR-Reichsbahn (east) for others, and then, after the
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