POLAND: Government bill provides for earlier retirement for 270,000 people

. WARSAW (Puls Biznesu), September 24, 2008: If the Polish government bill is approved by the Parliament, the budget will save PLN 10bn (EUR 3.0bn) annually while the number of employees available on the market will be higher by 1m people. (PLN 1 = EUR 0.302). The bill prepared by the ministry of labour provides for earlier retirement for 60 jobs. The government estimates that the system would cover 270,000 people which will cost PLN 500-600m annually. This is over 100,000 people more than planned before but still 1m fewer than trade unions had demanded. Employers approve of the bill. “This is a healthy compromise. We support this bill. It’s a pity that the number of privileged people has been increased but the government did not go too far, either. The economy will gain, the spending will be by PLN 10bn lower and there will be 1m people left on the labour market who otherwise would retire earlier”, Jeremi Mordasewicz from PKPP Lewiatan said. © 2008