Sito: www.aspenscrt.it – E-mail: aspenscrt@tiscali.it
(NATIONAL AND TRADE UNION FEDERATION OF THE GROUPS OF RETIRED STAFF OF BANKS AND SAVING BANKS)
“GOLD CLAUSE”
The Italian history of the pensions and its updating in order for them to sep their purchasing power as time goes by and ensure by the way the Standard of living the pensioners have reached during their working period has already been told and largely provided in the “Euromeetings” review. Today I propose to enlighten the last look ahead about this fact.
The Parliament must study a delegated law the Government has presented to revise the National Insurance. This revision mainly refers to whom will be pensioners in the future. Referring to the delegated law, the following points are planned:
- The retirement age’s deregulation.
- Fiscal incentive’s Systems which make convenient the continuation of the working activity.
- The progressive elimination of the ban on pension accumulation and the yields from working.
- The revision of the principle of adding up of the tax periods to increase the posibilitéis of adding tax periods for the employees of 65 years old or 40 years of work with at least 5 years of contribution in each fund-distribution pro-quota of the pension according to the characteristics of each fund.
- The maintenance and improvement of the development of the complementary kind of pensions, at the same time that they are conferred the end of relationship treatment using a silence-consent of the employee. To admit the employee’s right of transferring his own tax and the employer’s one to another one of his choice.
- The increase of tax charges to pension funds.
- The establishment of the main registry/office of active positions as regards of the National Insurance.
- To complete the proceedings of separation between the welfare payment and and the National Insurance.
- The speeding up of the proceedings of the tax system in the calculation of the pension. In fact, nowadays a mixed system is still in force, in whoever with at least 18 years of seniority when the “Amato” law (1991) came into force, kept the paying system for the years already passed and the tax calculation for the following years. For all the persons under contract alter 1991 they use an exclusive and single tax system.
As a result we can easily deduce that no measures have been planned for those who are already retired, in spite of some law bids existing before the Parliament which tend to improve and re-establish some positions that assured the maintenance of the purchasing power of the pensions and more exactly:
- On.le Publio Fiori – Vice-chairman of the Members of Parliament’s Chamber- Law bids for the automatic links of the pensions to the rewards and automatic distribution, which tends to be squashed and its continuous loss of power of purchase
- On.le Stefania Prestigiacomo – Minister of Parity of Opportunities –
- On.le Giulio Maceratini – Member of Parliament
- Law bids for the abolition of the accumulation between the processings of widow’s pension and the beneficiary’s yields.
I now believe it would be useful to make some remarks:
From the paper the 'TURIN STAMPA' The remark of the promoters of the recourse to the magistracy.
– “The Enquiry of the Pensioners”:
We can notice that the law of reform is improving, even if it contains elements which are socially fair, but it doesn’t face the main problem of the Retirement Question, like avoiding, with a consistent adaptation system, the pensions to decrease or disappear as time goes by, causing by the way negative economic and social consequences. Moreover, alter the sentence of the 30th of January of 2004 of the Constitutional Court which recognised once more the “deferred payment” nature of the pensions and that the current mechanism of adaptation is ineffective and capable of changes. In spite of its cautious and moderate language, the Court expressed its opinion clearly: it refers to the Parliament the respect of the principles of suitability and adaptation of the pensions that imposes the legislator to personalize a mechanism able to ensure a real and effective adaptation to the changes of the cost of living to allow the right jeans for a free and decent life respecting the rights established in the articles 36 and 38 of the Italian Constitution. The responsibility of the current situation of the Court wields by virtue of the non-observance, planned by the law 177/1976, of the periodic updating of the pensions between the Government and the trade union (in fact, the trade union has never inserted the problem of adaptation of the pensions in any general negotiation or contract). We must think about the future remembering that the problems of adaptation has not been resolved, I mean, it has been resolved unfairly, with the annual application of the ISTAT ( Transport Aircraft Trading International Society) index; this fact. Has caused only” pensions depending on the year” and in practice all the pensions loose a part of their initial value each year. The problem is not only of the retired employees or pensioners to be but also of all the national economy, because if nearly 19.000.000 individuals and their families won’t be able to have access to the market, to the acquisition of consumer durables, more than a lot of limits due to a lack of enough jeans, the Italian domestic request will continue decreasing with very serious consequences for everyone. Reasonable law bids have been showed in the Parliament to resolve the problem through the automatic inclusion in all the contracts and in the regulations-to-be a clause that establishes a percentage of increase even for the quiescent employees and also for the establishment of a suitable Fund to distribute the oldest pensions and, therefore, more “reviews”. The preservation of the power of purchase of the pensions is an essential point but, unfortunately, it neither is nor even contemplated by the government’s delegated law . The fact is that the problem faces seats of argument in the Parliament as a legal and social problem, this is why we should expect everybody, including the trade unions, to become aware of it and we should also expect a calmed political vote and without uncertainties from the members of Parliament.
- From the monthly published “Esperienza” – of ANLA – Nacional Association of Old Employees.–
The Constitutional Court with the sentence of the 30th of January 2004 has neglected once more the prospects of the pensioners of the year declaring with no common sense that, by virtue of the articles 3, 36. 38 of the Constitution, the matters of legitimacy of the rules, which paid improvements not applicable to pensioners, censored by the Audit Office. However the articles themselves of the
Constitution of the Court have been broken by the legislative, but they did not dare causing a loophole. In this sentence and in others (1, 96, 119 de 1991; 409 de 1995 y 457 de 1998) the nature of deferred payment of the pensions has been ratified and also that it must provide quality and quantity of the work done to guarantee the employee and his family a free and decent life. Today, the new sentence recognises the processing of the pensions is first of all the one able to ensure everything aforementioned and that the intervention of the Government’s finances is even more necessary because of the significant increase of the citizens’ life.
But, later, it declares itself incompetent in order to intervene positively as there is no constitutional principle to guarantee pensions that are constant and suitable for the economic processing of the activity of the corresponding exercise, as the mechanisms that ensure the suitable nature of the pensions depends on the confidential valuation of the legislative. For that reason, it directly addresses the legislative itself in order to respect the judgements of suitability and proportion in the exercise of its discretionary powers of balance between economic requirements and financial avaibility... In the current context, in which a project of reform is proposed to recover the resources in the balance of “pension expenses”, it won’t be easy to find that mechanism. Nevertheless, we have the right to expect that, after separating effectively the National Insurance from the welfare payment and after having realised the exact cost of the pensions, a dialogue about annual pensions able to find a domestic solution to the problem of the National Insurance itself.
- From the “MANAGER” – organ of the CIDA – Confederazione dei Dirigenti di Azienda (Confederation of Managers of Companies)–
Referring to the sentence of the Constituent assembly we can deduce that the actual percentage of variation stipulated by the Ministry of Labour about the annual base of the ISTAT index limited to 100 % for the two first groups of pensions between 1 and twice the minimum pension (Spanish Office Employment) (€ 412,18), to90% between 3 and 5 times the minimum, and to 75% for the groups of amounts bigger than 5 times the minimum amount, we could declare it unconstitutional as it could cause conditions which could develop the famous “pensions depending on the year”. According to the figures of “EURISPES” (Institute of Political, Economic and Social Research) the ruling class has lost, between 2001 and 2003, 15,4% as regards the original pension. In that context, in accordance with the matters analysed above, it is very important to emphasize how to guarantee efficiently the measure of the pension in order for it to be suitable not only at the moment of the retirement but also alter it, according to the changes of the power of purchase.
- Reflect of the deputy USPUR - Unione Sindacale Professori Universitari -
(Trade Union Association of Lecturers)
It analyses again the fact that the constant relationship between pension and salary is not a constitutional order. It analyses what is established about the proportion and suitability of the pensions to ensure a free and decent life. The legislative’s task consists in parking the balance between the securities and the interests involved, including the financial resources that are necessary to stand up to the expenses, by ensuring anyway the minimum requirements of protection of the person. If the Constitutional Court defined as unreasonable the difference between both economic situations, in office and alter the retirement, this would be a synonym of lack of suitability of the mechanism used by the legislative when ensuring a pension in accordance with the requirements of the employee and it would cast doubt on the real meaning of the word unreasonable in the analysis of the two situations aforementioned as there would be no parameter to check it. In short, if the legislative went on being the responsible of the analysis of the matter, the
problem would remain and it would favour a situation, in which, according to a lot of people, the index of depreciation, which cause an increasing loss of the value of the pensions, are not taken into account. We only have one thing left: the hope that the legislative will adopt a different judgement or that he will mark clearly the difference between pensions and salaries that causes the most this unreasonable abyss between them two.
To sum up, according to the concerns and the other organizations’ opinions, it is necessary for the Members of the Parliament, who had already showed law bids of equality, to form a partnership to require that in the Parliament the mentioned in the Sentence of the Constitutional Court measures must be analysed and gathered in the different law bids. Without a doubt, it’s about a rather difficult fight if we consider the indifference of a lot of people to this problem, including the trade union; it will be then necessary to overcome the uncertainties about the financial availability of the country as well as of the National Insurance Institutions. In this case it will be especially necessary to clarify the Fac. Of the separation of welfare payment and National Insurance in order to make clear what is of the citizen’s responsibility (welfare payment) and the National Insurance System’s Cost that the employees and employers pay through the contributions (National Insurance).
I hope, I mean all the Italian pensioners wish that the questions will soon find an answer. As far as it is concerned, the National Trade Union Federation of the Associations of Pensioners of Banks and Saving Banks will do its best to launch a policy to put pressure on the Members of Parliament to fight in defence of the justice and the right of the pensioner for it to be successful and to permit them to live a free and decent life respecting fully the article 36 of the Constitution.
Franco SALZA
President /Chairman FAP CREDITO
Federazione nazionale Sindacale delle Associazioni dei Pensionati del Credito (National Trade Union Federation of the Associations of Pensioners of Banks and Saving Banks)
E-mail: franco.salza@tiscali.it
