Congress heading to raise the retirement age to 75 years

In Peru, the legal retirement age is 65 years, and, if the employer and the worker agree, it can be extended to 70. Congress seeks to raise the threshold to 75 years.

Last Thursday, January 18, the Permanent Commission—led by the president of Congress, Alejandro Soto—approved this opinion of the Labor Commission that has been lurking in the colossus of Abancay Avenue since previous legislatures.

According to the document, the worker will have to undergo a medical evaluation, assumed by his employer, in which it will be determined whether he is physically and mentally fit to continue his productive activity until he is 75 years old. Said application will be submitted until the date on which the interested party turns 70 years old.

indiscriminate alliance

At the beginning of 2023, when Sigrid Bazán (CD-JPP) chaired the Labor Commission, which is now headed by Pasión Dávila (BM), this opinion was approved in said group alleging that “the current legislation does not provide protection to older adults who freely decide to continue working.”

Beyond the political creed that each one professes, the texts of the Bazán and Dávila administration coincide. The latter will be put to a second vote next week in Congress.

In February 2023, the Ministry of Labor and Employment Promotion (MTPE) supported extending the retirement age because differential treatment by age went against the principle of equality and non-discrimination that both the Constitutional Court (TC) and the International Labor Organization Labor (ILO) rejected. Even the portfolio, at that time led by Luis Adrianzén, questioned the establishment of a new age limit.

One more stripe to the tiger

“It is a big business for the AFP. It will last up to 75 years, it is a world record. Congress legislates against the elderly, who will be forced to pay more years of contributions and collect fewer years of retirement,” labor activist Javier Mujica argued for La República.

In other economies, the specialist explained, the trend is rather to reduce the retirement age so that young people have more opportunities in the labor market; while here we are going in the opposite direction and the possibilities for the new generations are further reduced.

From the General Confederation of Workers of Peru (CGTP) they commented to this newspaper that Congress illogically plays with the needs of the workers, since the majority will cling to working until the age of 75 because they are aware that, if they retire now, He will receive a miserable pension of S/200 or, “in the best of cases”, S/800.

“There is a ruling from the TC that establishes raising pensions to the minimum living wage (S/1,025). Today a worker earns S/3,000 and tomorrow he receives a pension of S/200. They do not adapt to the country’s priorities and lengthen working life, but they do not guarantee a decent retirement and pension,” they lamented from the union headquarters.

Data

• 300 thousand young people enter the labor market every year. Much of it goes to informality and even illegality.
• 110 years on average, the AFP established; That is what a person must experience to receive the full amount of all his contributions.

The word

Javier Mujica, labor lawyer

“All over the world the trend is to reduce the retirement age (…). “Congress legislates against the elderly, forcing them to pay more years of contributions and collect fewer years of retirement.”