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Agreement reached on criteria for “demanding professions"

The Federal Government has reached an agreement on the criteria for defining whether a profession is “demanding” or not. Those with a demanding profession will be able to retire earlier than other or will receive a higher pension if they retire at the same age as those that don’t work in a profession considered to be demanding.

The criteria are part of the Federal Governments reforms of the pension system that will see the retirement age raised to 66 from 2025 and to 67 from 2030.

The minimum age at which someone working in a demanding profession will be able to retire is 60.

The criteria for a profession to be defined as demanding are:

• Physically demanding manual work
• Irregular hours
• Safety risks
• Stress

However, “stress” can only be used as a criteria in conjunction with at least one of the three other criteria.
For those whose working conditions mean that they meet one of the three criteria, each year that they have worked will count as 1.05 years. This increases to 1.10 years if two criteria are met and 1.15 years if three criteria are met. In the best case scenario, a person that has worked in a demanding profession will be able to retire 6 years early.
The Pensions Minister Daniel Bacquelaine (Francophone liberal) will now enter negotiation with the unions and employers’ federations about which professions meat which criteria. If and when an agreement is reached the cost implications will be calculated and it will return to the Federal Cabinet table for approval.
 

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