Raising the retirement age in an attempt to ensure the pension system remains sustainable as life expectancy grows is “unfair and ineffectual,” ETUC leaders said today as they launched a fightback against the policy.

The ETUC launched a push for fair pensions at a two-day conference in Croatia, where the government recently raised the legal retirement age from 65 to 67 only to be forced into a u-turn by trade unions who gathered over double the number of signatures required for a referendum on the issue.

Speaking at a press conference in Zagreb, ETUC General Secretary Luca Visentini said:

“Croatia is at the forefront of the battle for fair pensions, which is why we’re here to show solidarity with our trade union affiliates. We need to continue this struggle to make sure that all workers in Croatia and Europe are able to benefit from fair and just social protection and pension systems. We need binding rules from the European level which stop governments pursuing regressive and discriminatory pension reforms.”

Raising the retirement age has been shown to exacerbate social inequalities as well as being ineffective at generating the extra contributions needed to sustain the pension system.

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