Retirees Advocate for Pension Bonus Parity in National Budget
A campaign by retirees and their families is calling for a significant reform in the calculation of annual bonuses for pensioners, urging the government and the Social Security Organization to align these payments with those of active workers.
The Core Demand: Aligning with Active Workers
The central demand of the campaign is for the annual bonus (Eidi) for Social Security pensioners to be calculated on the same basis as that for active workers covered by the Labor Law. The retirees are pushing for this reform to be included as a priority in the drafting of the upcoming annual national budget.
A Call for Equitable Treatment
The campaign’s text emphasizes the contributions of the retired community, stating, “Social Security pensioners, through years of hard work and effort, drove the wheels of the nation’s production.” It further argues that retirees today expect to benefit from the same fairness in payments they experienced during their employment.
Currently, while active workers receive a bonus equivalent to two or three times the annual minimum wage, the bonus for Social Security pensioners is paid as a fixed and, in their view, inequitable amount. The campaign contends that this discrepancy contradicts the principles of insurance justice and specific articles of the Social Security Law.
Legal and Financial Framework
Under existing regulations, the year-end bonus and reward are exempt from insurance premium deductions up to a specified ceiling, provided they are paid within the legal framework. This ceiling is calculated based on a multiple of the daily minimum wage. The campaign seeks to extend this dynamic, wage-linked calculation method to pensioners’ bonuses, moving away from the current static payment system.
The initiative highlights a focused effort to address pensioner welfare through established legal and budgetary channels, seeking to harmonize the treatment of former contributors to the national economy with the active workforce.