Spain - Government and unions reach pension deal - January 28, 2011

After long negotiations, taking place since early January, the government has struck a deal with the two major union confederations to raise the age of retirement. The parties have agreed that the compulsory retirement age will increase from 65 to 67. As part of a compromise the government agreed that workers could retire at 65 if they had contributed to the state pensions system for at least 38.5 years. Earlier, the government had threatened to impose the changes by decree if necessary, whereas trade unions had warned of another general strike (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 December 2010).

English: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12305246;

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/28/world/europe/28iht-spain28.html?_r=1

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.