ALEBA, the trade union for employees of the banking sector in Luxembourg, has called for a balanced and sustainable pension system in the Grand Duchy.
Focused on social protection and working to improve working conditions and ensure lasting job security, ALEBA has been in existence for a hundred years.
It is now proposing solutions aimed at ensuring sustainable and fair protection of workers' rights and calls for an open and balanced debate on pension reform, based on medium-term forecasts and inclusive solutions for all pension schemes.
The future of pensions threatened by long-term projections
With a pension fund now worth €24 billion, ALEBA believes it is high time to break with what they describe as often erroneous long-term forecasts and refocus the discussion on concrete solutions. According to ALEBA, workers, who have been contributing to this fund for decades, must not see their rights threatened by speculation 20 or 30 years ahead. It is advocating what they describe as a strategic and balanced approach over the medium term, which these comfortable reserves allow us to take, in order to avoid hasty measures and offer employees realistic prospects.
ALEBA is insisting on a number of fundamental principles for a fair and sustainable reform:
• Maintaining the legal retirement age of 65: "We strongly defend maintaining the current legal retirement age, while calling for the arduous nature of work and end-of-career conditions to finally be taken into account. Raising the retirement age would unfairly penalise long-career workers".
• Protection of low-paid workers: "It is unacceptable that retired workers should struggle to live in dignity after a lifetime of hard work. ALEBA is calling for stronger rights for employees on low incomes and is campaigning for an increase in the minimum pension, so that it rises above the poverty line!"
• General pension reform: "ALEBA advocates harmonisation of all pension schemes to guarantee fair treatment and ensure the sustainability of pensions for future generations".
• No compromise on the end-of-year bonus: "The reform must under no circumstances affect this essential bonus for many households. Any attempt to link an increase in contributions to the abolition of the end-of-year bonus will be resolutely opposed"
• Gender equality: "ALEBA recommends reforms to reduce gender-based pension disparities, including measures for career breaks due to family reasons".
According to ALEBA, it is not simply criticising: it is proposing what they describe as solid and fair solutions to make the system sustainable without compromising social benefits. Its proposals include lifting the ceiling on social security contributions, currently set at €154,000 per year, an option that would generate additional income without increasing the burden on low earners. In addition, it is defending the use of financial reserves, which it argues are there precisely to meet the needs of current generations.
It is also proposing taxes on super-profits and AI to offset job and revenue losses and fund training for new occupations.
On the other hand, it is calling for the introduction of measures to keep older people in employment, such as reducing or exempting employers' contributions without affecting social security contributions.
It is also insisting on gender equality, with specific measures to close the pension gaps caused by career breaks for family reasons. Women, who are often penalised by interrupted careers, must be better protected in a system that aims to be fair.
Call for collaboration
ALEBA will be meeting the Minister for Health and Social Security, Martine Deprez, on 19 November to discuss its inclusion in the reform process. It argues that Luxembourg employees deserve strong and committed representatives to defend their rights; and it states that it is committed to holding this front line.
