"The pension hoax continues: limits on pension equalization remain in place until 2018, in violation of the right to equalization enshrined by the Constitutional Court."
This is Loris Cavalletti's comment on the pension provision in the Stability Law, speaking at the joint executive meetings of SPI, FNP, and UILP Emilia-Romagna, which met to approve the procedures for jointly submitting regional pilot appeals against the law implementing the Constitutional Court ruling on the pension freeze.
"Rather than revaluing pensions, as the unions have been calling for years and the Constitutional Court has sanctioned," Cavalletti observes, "we continue to cash in on pensions. The Stability Law, he points out, no longer mentions a safeguard clause, but specifies that the measures will be financed by remodulating the indexation of pensions themselves."
In fact, pensions exceeding four times the minimum over the two-year period will be automatically revalued at 75% instead of 90%; those exceeding five times the INPS minimum will be revalued at 50% instead of 75%; and six times at 45% instead of 75%. Indexation at 100% remains for minimum pensions up to €1,500, and no equalization for those exceeding €3,000. And always forgetting that the pension check is a deferred salary. The extension, even if partial, of the no-tax area for pensioners is positive, but it must be implemented in 2016 and not 2017 as required by law.
Finally, Cavalletti argues that "it's wrong not to introduce flexible pension access, because this will continue to penalize workers and young people who can't find a way into the job market due to the blocked turnover."
Hence the mobilization of pensioners' unions to obtain a change to the stability law, through demonstrations, sit-ins, and meetings with local parliamentarians. (ir)
