Proposal for early retirement for men “irresponsible”

Budapest, August 4 (MTI) – Calls to allow men to retire after 40 years are “irresponsible”, the head of Hungary’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Tuesday.

Hungary’s biggest challenge in the past few years has been to maintain the budget balance, Laszlo Parragh told public television news channel M1, adding that lowering the retirement would reduce tax revenues insupportably and erode the national pension fund. Any move to bring the retirement rules in line with those for women would necessitate tax rises, he said.

The opposition Socialists recently voiced support for a trade union referendum initiative to allow men — as women can currently do — to retire after 40 years of employment.

“The whole thing hasn’t been thought through; it is dishonest and wrongheaded,” Parragh said.

Fidesz spokesman Bence Tuzson told a press conference that government does not plan to change current rules. He said that for men working is partly bound up with their self-esteem.

Source: http://mtva.hu/hu/hungary-matters