Considered “socially inefficient” and “against the people”, a law was approved that increases the retirement age from 60 to 65 years in Uruguay. Thousands of workers mobilized against the decision.
The upper house of the Uruguayan parliament approved a social security reform, promoted by the government of President Luis Lacalle Pou, which raises the retirement age from 60 to 65 as a maximum.
The Senate ratified this Thursday, with the vote in favor of 17 of the 28 senators, the modifications to the original text, which had already been approved in the Lower House, the Chamber of Deputies.
The upper house of the Uruguayan parliament had already approved the bill in December, but objections from the Cabildo Abierto party (right) and the Colorado party (center-right) forced the executive to negotiate changes in the Chamber of Deputies.
The two parties managed to impose a review of widow’s and severe disability pensions and a reduction from 25 to 20 years for the “best years”, the period used to calculate the retirement pension.
Created with the endorsement of a commission of specialists, before being sent to parliament in October, the reform was described as “necessary” and “supportive” by Lacalle Pou, who highlighted its approval as one of the main priorities of the mandate.
However, the reform found opposition from the left-wing Frente Ampla coalition, which governed Uruguay between 2005 and 2020, and from the unions.
Thousands of workers from sectors such as health, transportation or education mobilized this Tuesday in Uruguay, within the framework of a general strike called by the Uruguayan union PIT-CNT, to reject the government’s proposal, which they described as “socially inefficient” and “against the people”.
On Wednesday, the day the Chamber of Deputies just voted on the reform, the opponents met again in front of the parliament building to protest.
The PIT-CNT spokesman, Sergio Sommaruga, accused the government of not listening to the workers and of having taken into account only the benefits of “a privileged minority.”
“This reform is not for the peoplebut against the people (…), it is neither fair nor democratic, much less supportive, but also socially ineffective,” he defended.
The president of the PIT-CNT, Marcelo Abdala, told the local newspaper El País that he feared that the changes would accentuate “the problem of youth unemployment” by slowing down the replacement of employment.
Source: Observadora
