With the votes of the ruling party, the Senate
approved this Thursday the law to reform the social security system
promoted by the Government of Luis Lacalle Pou which, among other measures,
increases the retirement age from 60 to a maximum of 65 years.
After the House of Representatives approved modifications to the original text and with
17 affirmative votes out of a total of 28
, the senators of the parties that make up the government coalition ratified the changes to the norm, which
will be sent to the Executive Power for its promulgation. .
The project, already passed into law, had passed the Senate last December and was pending a vote by the deputies, where objections from the right-wing Cabildo Abierto (CA) and the center-right Colorado Party (PC) forced the Executive
of Lacalle Pou to negotiate.
Thus, among other measures, the PC and CA
asked to review the pensions for widowhood and severe disability
or to reduce from 25 to 20 years the measure of "best years" to calculate the basic retirement salary.
Created with the endorsement of a Commission of Social Security Experts, before being sent to Parliament in October 2022, the reform
was described as "necessary" and "solidarity" by Lacalle Pou,
who has highlighted its approval as
one of the main priorities of his mandate.
However,
it was not accompanied by the left-wing opposition coalition Frente Amplio
, which governed between 2005 and 2020,
nor by the unions.
Thousands of workers in areas such as health, transportation or education
mobilized this Tuesday in Uruguay within the framework of the general strike
called by the union, the PIT-CNT, to express their rejection of the government's pension reform project, which they described as "socially inefficient" and "against the people".
On the day in which the articles of the project were voted in the Lower House, which completed its work on Wednesday to return it to the Senate, its opponents gathered outside the Legislative Palace to protest.
There, the spokesman for the PIT-CNT, Sergio Sommaruga, pointed against the plan of a government that, he said, did
not listen to the workers
and took into account only the benefit of "a privileged minority."
"
This reform is not for the people but against the people (...)
, it is neither fair nor democratic, much less supportive, but it is also socially inefficient," emphasized who argued that it will make the majority have to "bust their backs until age 65" in order to retire.
Another of the concerns of social groups is that it accentuates "the problem of youth unemployment" by slowing down labor replacement.
According to what its president, Marcelo Abdala, declared to the local newspaper El País, the PIT-CNT is already evaluating the possibility of repealing the reform.
With information from EFE
look too
Lacalle Pou celebrated the growth of Uruguay and announced a large tax cut
Strike and march in Uruguay against the pension reform of Luis Lacalle Pou