Karajbić: Workers are not given anything, they are enabled to receive their honestly earned pensions

The request of the FBiH Government and the Pension and Disability Insurance (PIO) to halt the adoption of amendments to the PIO law in the House of Peoples, which would enable a certain number of people to acquire pension rights, represents a message of utmost hypocrisy and incompetence“,  believes Elvir Karajbić, head of the SDP BiH parliamentary group in the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Federation of BiH. He warns that the number is not what was speculated in the media, but that it concerns women aged 55 with 30 years of paid contributions, and men aged 60 with 35 years of paid contributions.

“The public must know that this case does not involve amendments to the law that give something to someone, but rather enable people to start receiving their honestly earned pensions under the same conditions as all those who achieved this by the end of 2015. The fact that this law was supported in the House of Representatives by both the ruling and opposition parties shows that it is a socially just and, ultimately, fair solution.

Talking about the collapse of the PIO fund every time someone is about to retire, while forgetting that in that same fund, individuals with significantly less years of service have been receiving pensions for a long time, represents nothing other than social insensitivity of the worst kind“, said Karajbić.

He also asks why the representatives of the ruling party did not comment in this way when the PIO fund was bombarded with various harmful legal solutions before the elections, but instead agreed to be part of what he calls an obviously harmful political game that they now want to charge to future pensioners.

“Dear sirs, if you are not capable of implementing serious reforms in the social sector, then do not seek refuge in the constant collapse of the system whenever citizens need to exercise their rights. Instead of constantly complaining and denying citizens with earned pensions their right to exercise it, you could have skipped the purchase of a multi-million dollar vehicle fleet the other day and used those funds to help the PIO fund.

In the end, I only hope that your conclusion about your own incompetence, delegated to the House of Peoples, will nevertheless be defeated by the joint vote of the ruling and opposition parties in the interest of the citizens of this country“, says Karajbić.