The Chamber of Deputies today approved the government’s pension reforms, which will introduce a slower rise in the retirement age, by one month a year instead of up to two months, and a retirement age limit of 67 years.
MPs also endorsed an amendment reducing the originally proposed range of workers in demanding professions entitled to early retirement without their pensions being cut, to roughly one-tenth of the original proposal.
At the same time, the lower house rejected changes proposed by the opposition. The draft will now be submitted to the Senate for further discussion.
The pension amendment was approved by 103 of the 188 MPs present in the form agreed by the governing coalition. It was supported by legislators from the ruling Civic Democrats (ODS), Christian Democrats (KDU-CSL), TOP 09 and Mayors and Independents (STAN), as well as unaffiliated MP Ivo Vondrak (formerly ANO). The MPs for the opposition ANO and far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) voted against it, while the Pirates, until recently a government party, left the session hall before the vote.
Representatives of ANO and SPD vowed to repeal the pension changes if they come to power.
The final approval of the controversial bill lasted four session days, and the debate covered a total of 15.5 hours.
The restriction of earlier pensions for demanding professions, proposed by MPs Jan Jakob (TOP 09) and Marek Benda (ODS), initially caused discord in the coalition. The reform originally envisaged that workers in the most risky fourth category and parts of the third category who work with physical stress, vibration, or in cold or heat would be entitled to early pensions. The employer would pay 5% higher social insurance contributions for them, and about 120,000 people could thereby retire up to five years earlier with full pensions.
The MPs’ approved proposal restricts this possibility to only the fourth category workers, of which there are no more than 15,000, according to the legislative notes justifying this change. The coalition agreed that for workers falling into the third category with four risks, the employers would be obliged to contribute 4% of wages to the third pension pillar in individual accounts.
The slower increase in the retirement age, by one month a year to 67 years, was introduced in the amendment supported by a group of coalition MPs led by Jiri Navratil (KDU-CSL). Those born after 1988 should retire at 67. ANO and SPD parties did not push to keep the current retirement age limit of 65.
The government’s original version of the reform envisaged an irregular shift of the retirement age limit according to life expectancy by at most two months per year, without any cap.
The retirement age is already increasing in the country, usually by two months a year for men and four months for women. It was due to reach the current age of 65 in the 2030s.
The two opposition movements did not push for the removal of the calculation of new pensions to be reduced between 2026 and 2035 when a smaller portion of earnings would be calculated in each year. The measure, as well as the rise in retirement age, is intended to contribute to the sustainability of the pension system and reduction of the deficit, according to the government.
The lower house adjusted the pension bonus for dependent children based on the proposal of a group of coalition MPs around Vit Kankovsky (KDU-CSL). According to the reform, it would be paid only for the third child and further children, and in the case of the first two offspring, it would be replaced by the inclusion of fictitious earnings in the pension calculation. The bonus for children will amount to at least CZK 500 per child.
The Chamber also approved a series of other coalition-proposed changes in the amendment. They concern the new institution of partnership to be reflected in the law on pension insurance, the introduction of health and pension insurance for the president’s spouse or partner, the coverage of the costs of sending pensions abroad, and the digital signature of applications, as well as the transfer of the pension agenda of the Prison Service and customs officers to the Ministry of the Interior.
At press conferences after the vote, Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) described the pension reform as the most important government legislation, while ANO again threatened to repeal it.
According to Fiala, without the reforms, the deficit in the pension system would reach up to 5% by the middle of the century, about CZK 350 billion in today’s money. The measures reduce the forecast deficit to about 1% of GDP.
Government politicians stressed that current pensioners would not be affected by the reform and their pensions would not be cut. The coalition had promised pension reform to voters in its policy statement, they added.
MP Jan Jakob, head of the TOP 09 parliamentary group, said the opposition had not come up with its own proposals, and Marek Vyborny, chair of the Christian Democrats, described the opposition’s approach as destructive.
The Pirates, who recently left the government, did not support the government’s reform, and their four MPs left the chamber during the vote. They criticised the limitations on early pensions for demanding professions compared to the original proposal.
ANO deputy group head Alena Schillerova said that if ANO came to power in government after the elections, it would revise the reform and abolish most of the measures. She said that ANO would leave in force some technical parts of the amendment of a non-conflicting nature, but would abolish the increase in the retirement age and the rules for early pensions for demanding professions.
ANO chairman and ex-PM Andrej Babis, whose absence was pointed out by Fiala during today’s final vote, was absent for serious personal reasons, Schillerova noted.
Schillerova said she would propose to the ANO deputy group to challenge the pension reform at the Constitutional Court, which should at least review the approval procedure. She said Chamber Speaker Marketa Pekarova Adamova (TOP 09) had not allowed a vote on her proposal to suspend negotiations on the pension amendment until the middle of next year, arguing that the lower house had already decided on the date to resume the session.
Schillerova concluded that ANO was not planning its pension reform now, but would include measures to make the pension system sustainable in its election programme.
