The LCGB trade union has confirmed that, as part of its national conference on 16 January 2024 in Luxembourg-Dommeldange, the LCGB-Rentiers (retirement) Commission clearly positioned itself for the sustainability of the public pension insurance system.
The 101 retirees present adopted a resolution mandating the LCGB to oppose any attempt to privatise the public pension insurance system by replacing what they described as the current intergenerational solidarity system with a capitalisation system.
They noted that the plan to reform the pension system, as provided for in the government programme and as revealed by the Minister of Health and Social Security, will neither strengthen the purchasing power of current retirees nor improve the situation of future retirees.
Taking into account a level of the pension reserve, which exceeds more than 4.29 times the amount of annual expenditure, i.e. an amount of €24.5 billion as of 31 December 2022, a deterioration of the public system under the pretext of an unfavourable projection by 2070 is unacceptable to the LCGB, especially since these projections are based on what they describe as an extremely pessimistic scenario, with a significant slowdown and then stagnation in demographic growth by 2070.
They claim that there is therefore more than sufficient financial room to monitor developments and to discuss in a tripartite manner the measures to be taken to ensure the financial viability of the public pension insurance scheme. To this end, and faithful to the tripartite management of pension insurance, they are claiming that the government must engage in negotiations with union and employer representatives in order to develop new sources of financing.
In addition, the LCGB-Retirees Commission is claiming:
• an increase in the amount of the minimum pension above the poverty line;
• the full maintenance of the adjustment of pensions and the end-of-year allowance by an abolition of the legal automatism aimed at a reduction of the adjustment respectively a suppression of the allowance in the event of exceeding the bonus of pure distribution;
• maintaining the legal pension age at 65 and the 480-month qualifying period for the right to retire with the possibility of an early old-age pension under the conditions currently in force.
As a result, the LCGB-Rentiers Commission stated that it is categorically opposed to any government attempt to deteriorate the public pension insurance system or any attempt to transform the current distribution system (based on intergenerational solidarity) with a capitalisation system (system where the employee must contribute to his own pension) respectively an obligation to resort to supplementary pensions.
