Poland to extend retirement age

WARSAW: The Polish government wants to raise the retirement age for uniformed services personnel and increase their minimum length of career as it tries to curb spending to safeguard against fallout from the euro zone's debt crisis.

At present, Poland's police, military and custom officers, among others, can qualify for pensions after as little as 15 years at work. The Polish centre-right government has long been locked in difficult negotiations with labour unions about changing that.

"We would like to work out and present the draft bill on uniformed services pensions by Jan. 10," Poland's Interior Affairs Minister, Jacek Cichocki, said on Monday.

"We hope the draft will get to the parliament in late January or early February, so that the president gets to sign it in the first half of 2012 and so that the new regulation is enacted as of Jan.1, 2013, at the latest."

Presenting his agenda for four more years in office after winning a second consecutive term in a national election in October, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said last month he would rise Poles' retirement age and hike some taxes to shield the European Union's largest eastern economy from the euro zone crisis.

The proposals referred to on Monday would only affect uniformed services' personnel starting work in 2013. They will be entitled to retire after a minimum of 25 years at work and not before turning 55 years old.

"Moving towards equalising retirement systems and eliminating special pension benefits is a step in the right direction, but this one will only give effects in decades," said senior analysts at BZ WBK bank, Piotr Bielski.

Copyright Reuters, 2011