OELMEK requests retirement at 63

SECONDARY school teachers’ union OELMEK is asking the government to extend the retirement age for its older members from 60 to 63.

Speaking to the House of Representatives Education Committee, OELMEK President Eleni Semelidou said that the main reason for the union’s request was that around 70 per cent of its members did not receive a full pension on retiring. This was due to the fact that many teachers were only appointed at a mature age after being on the government’s waiting list, and so did not have the chance to make the necessary 33 and one-third years’ worth of contributions to draw a full pension on retiring.

The request represents a change of the union’s policy – just a few years ago a majority of its members had opposed any extension of the retirement age from 60. Semelidou said that the change would give those members affected the opportunity to receive a salary for an extra three years and thus increase the amount of their pension.

It became clear during the Education Committee’s discussion of the matter that opposition parties DISY and EVROKO, together with government coalition partners DIKO and EDEK, all supported the proposed change, but AKEL is opposed.

The Education Ministry representative declined to state a position, while the two other teaching unions – primary school teachers POED and technical school teachers OLTEK – argued in favour of retaining the 60-year limit.

The representative of the Public Administration and Human Resources Department, speaking on behalf of the Finance Ministry, made two main points.

Firstly, OELMEK had not yet made a formal request to extend the retirement limit to the Joint Committee of Teaching Service Personnel, the government body responsible for handling trade union matters.

Secondly, in a recent meeting with the Finance Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, OELMEK had asked for voluntary redundancy at 63 to be made available only to those who had not made the contributions needed for a full pension. The Ministry’s representative told the House Committee that this raised doubts about feasibility, as this arrangement would put into question the principle of equal treatment for all teachers.

Similar reservations were also raised by Committee members from the parties which support the requested change.

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