In an Yle interview on Friday, the head of the Confederation of Finnish Industries, Lasse Laatunen, called for the age of retirement to be raised from 65 and brought in line with some European countries where people will have to work until 67 or even older. The Confederation claimed the move will bring increased economic stability.
Throughout Friday unions voiced their opposition to the proposals, with Lauri Lyly, head of Finland’s largest Trades Union Federation, SAK, describing the age limit as “too rigid”, and saying that the focus should be on practical and flexible retirement policies.
“A system in which workers can only retire based on reaching the age boundary or becoming disabled feels very inflexible,” Lyly said. “The retirement age in Finland is already 68 – that’s how old you can work until if work is available and your health holds out,” he said.
Lyly argued that other European countries also offer the possibility for early retirement. “A flexible model is good because it gives space if work is available,” he said.
Pekka Piispanen from Akava, a second trade union confederation, conceded that raising the average retirement age should be a priority. “Here in Finland our average retirement age is 60.9 and there is room for this to go up,” he said.
However he warned against international comparisons without taking into account the special characteristics of each system, such as transition periods or other retirement features.
“Pension matters are for each country to decide, and we must look at why those decisions are arrived at,” Piispanen said.
Lasse Laatunen made his comments as part of opening negotiations on pension reform, of which the retirement age is one element. But age changes will not be possible without a wider agreement on how the wider pension system will look in future.
Laatunen said he was not sure that the current retirement age of 65 was sufficient any more. ”When I look at what other European countries, we see that there are around 20 which have raised the pension age, many to 67 or even higher,” Laatunen said.
”We’ve wasted many years over delays with this issue. It currently looks like any reforms won’t come into force before 2017. There will be parliamentary elections and a new government, beyond which it is impossible to say what will happen. The longer the wavering, the more opportunities we are missing, and when the time comes to finally implement changes, they will have to be all the more wide-ranging as a result of the delays,” he said.
