FSG rejects pension age rise, cites temporary cost increase

Social Democratic trade unionists in Vorarlberg have rejected calls to raise the pension age, saying official forecasts show no collapse of Austria’s pension system. ORF reported that the group instead called for healthier workplaces, better access to jobs for older people and more affordable childcare.

“We do not need people who have to work longer, but a working world in which people can work healthily until today’s pension age,” FSG federal chairman Josef Muchitsch, Chamber of Labour Vice-President Manuela Auer and Chamber of Labour audit committee chairman Andreas Ammann said at a joint news conference in Hohenems on Thursday.

Pension costs expected to fall after 2032

The FSG Vorarlberg said long-term official forecasts pointed to a temporary demographic increase in costs rather than a collapse. Public pension spending stood at 13.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2022. It is expected to rise temporarily to 15.1 percent by 2032 because of larger birth cohorts, before falling to 14.0 percent by 2070.

The FSG said the pension system was therefore financially sustainable and that raising the retirement age was unnecessary. The key question, it argued, was whether older people could find jobs, with women facing particular difficulties.

“We need to discuss the future of the pension system, but on the basis of facts and not panic,” said Muchitsch, who is also a Social Democratic Party member of parliament.

Call for penalties for employers

Auer said the number of unemployed women had recorded the largest increase, rising 17 percent from the previous year. “Women over 60 effectively can no longer find a job,” she said.

The FSG said companies should employ older workers and proposed considering a bonus-malus system under which employers that failed to meet certain quotas for older employees would have to pay additional contributions.

Physically demanding jobs also presented a problem, the group said. On construction sites, it called for effective health protection, working hours adapted to heat and consistent implementation of heat protection regulations.

The FSG also called for better and affordable childcare, saying this would allow more women to work and pay higher contributions into the pension system.

Study links pension age rise to unemployment

The Research and Advice Centre for the World of Work, known by its German acronym FORBA, recently identified a direct link between the increase in the retirement age for women and rising unemployment among older women. It said unemployment among women aged 60 and over had risen sharply within a few months of the first increase.

According to the Chamber of Labour, about four million people work in 235,000 businesses in Austria. Only around 175,000 people aged between 60 and 64 are in employment, while almost half a million people in that age group are not employed.