Denmark - PM announces phasing out early retirement - January 3, 2011

The nation’s early retirement scheme is a drain on the social welfare system, according to Prime Minister (PM) Lars Løkke Rasmussen. In his New Year’s Day speech Rasmussen announced to gradually eliminate the so-called efterløn programme, currently permitting individuals who have paid into the system for 30 years to receive a partial pension five years before the official retirement age of 65. The early retirement programme was introduced in 1979 as a way to provide older manual labourers a way to stop working, as well as to help alleviate unemployment. According to the PM, it costs DKK 16 billion (Euro 2.15 billion) annually.

English: http://www.cphpost.dk/news/politics/90-politics/50749-pm-phase-out ...    via

http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Denmark

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.