Press Release No. 41/2010 IG Metall: Data from the Federal Government’s Report Does Not Provide a Basis for Retirement at 67

Frankfurt am Main – IG Metall does not see the data in the federal government’s report on retirement at age 67 as a basis for maintaining the increase in the standard retirement age. “The figures in the report do not support, but rather argue against, raising the retirement age,” said Berthold Huber, President of IG Metall, on Wednesday in Frankfurt. Only 15 percent of workers between the ages of 60 and 65 hold regular full-time jobs. Many others work in atypical and precarious jobs, such as temporary agency workers or those in marginal employment. “This is nothing to be proud of, and certainly no reason to celebrate,” Huber criticized.

The IG Metall leader reiterated the demand to suspend the “retirement at 67” policy. “Retirement at 67 is a dead end. It ignores working conditions in companies and government agencies,” Huber said. In the industrial sector alone, he noted, one-third of workers are forced to leave the workforce early for health reasons due to workplace stresses such as shift work, night shifts, and weekend work. Instead of raising the standard retirement age, he argued, a concept for a flexible transition to retirement is needed—one in which workplace stress and the duration of contributions to the statutory pension insurance system play an important role. IG Metall is prepared to work constructively on such a concept.