RESOLUTION ON ENABLING RETIRED PERSONNEL
TO LIVE WITH DIGNITY
The Fourth World Congress of Education International (EI), held in Porto Alegre, Brazil,
from 22 to 26 July 2004:
- Recalls that the social struggles waged by workers, including teachers and education workers in
particular have enabled them, in many countries, to retire from work between the ages of 55 and
65 in most cases, and to benefit from a lifetime retirement pension.
- Recalls that these pension schemes are mostly financed through contributions based on the
salary paid by the employer to the employee and that therefore this financing constitutes de
facto a deferred payment that is part of the salary.
- Recalls that the availability of funds for the payment of pensions is based on an income
redistribution scheme or a capitalisation scheme or, alternatively, a mixed scheme.
Congress, furthermore,
- Reaffirms the fundamental right to an adequate retirement pension, which should be available
to all workers including, in particular, education workers, so as to enable them to live with dignity.
- Notes that redistribution-based pension schemes, which in fact use the contributions paid
by active workers to pay the pensions of retired workers, are today facing a grave crisis in
industrialised countries as a result of a drop in the number of contributing workers, which in turn
is due to persistently high unemployment levels and the development of an informal sector.
- Notes that several industrialised countries have engaged in reforms of their pension scheme
- not without giving rise to serious social conflicts - with the aim of extending the duration of the
required contribution periods, increasing the amount of the contributions payable and reducing
the amount of the pensions.
- Notes, furthermore, that in recent years capital-based pension schemes, which depend on the
returns on investments made with the contributions paid by active workers, have been negatively
impacted by a - sometimes spectacular - drop in the value of stocks and shares.
- Notes that as a result of the collapse in the value of stocks and shares, many workers have found
themselves destitute or are only receiving much smaller pensions and have therefore become
financially dependent on others.
- Asserts that it is unacceptable that:
- Education sector workers are forced to continue working until their old age in a context of
deteriorating working conditions, all the more since governments are not operating the
reforms needed to make work less tiresome.
- Retired personnel must cope with a lower standard of living than that of active personnel
- Workers with the shortest careers, particularly women, casual workers and the unemployed,
be the main victims of business reforms.
- Optional retirement insurance systems are developing to the detriment of obligatory, public,
solidarity-based systems, thereby leading to greater inequality.
- Personal savings is again becoming the primary means of preparing one's retirement, and
solidarity is withering away to make room for egoism.
The Fourth World Congress of Education International therefore
- Calls on the Executive Board to give all the necessary attention to the issue of workers' pensions
in the education sector,to raise this issue with the appropriate bodies of the International Labour
Organisation (ILO) and to seek consultations with appropriate entities to promote pension reform
policies that support the interests of teachers and education workers.
- Calls on the Executive Board to gather information about the EI affiliates' training for members
who serve on pension or retirement system boards, and to research and disseminate case studies
on how affiliates have protected the retirement interests of their membership.
- Calls on the Executive Bard to conduct appropriate studies on the different pension policies
currently implemented in the education sector as well as on the reforms undertaken in this area
in recent years.
- Invites member organisations to exercise the greatest vigilance with regard to pension
provisions in the social policies pursued in their respective countries, and to struggle against
backward policies which are disastrous for public education services.
- Calls on to member organisations to demand full application of human rights to retired
personnel, particularly as they become dependent, which implies that an adequate number of
public health workers be given high-quality initial and further training.
- Invites member organisations to involve retired education workers notably making space
available to them in the organisations.
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