Shoura to vote on retirement age extension

CRUCIAL MOVE: The Shoura Council will propose a host of amendments to the Civil Service Retirement Law.

JEDDAH: The Shoura Council is to vote next Monday on key amendments to the Civil Service Retirement Law after hearing the views of members of the Finance Committee that reviewed three proposed bills to amend the civil service retirement system.
It has also conducted a comprehensive study of all existing pension system articles, which took into consideration certain amendments proposed by other members, rejected others and finalized the report in less than a year.
The most significant of the proposed amendments is to extend the retirement age to 62 for civil servant in general, with the exception of ministers and judges. Extension can only be granted beyond this age through a royal decree. The proposal also included annually adding the cost of living allowances, calculating the accompanying leave, and cutting the age of retirement for female employees.
The new amendments to the Civil Service Retirement Law also added other categories of pension beneficiaries.
The amendments made by the Finance Committee excluded the husband or wife of stopping payment of pensions for beneficiaries, and allowed a husband and wife to combine a pension and a job salary. It also rejected the addition of articles of a spouse on scholarship leave, or one who works at one of the embassies or consulates of the Kingdom abroad.
Fadwa Abu Mrefa, who submitted three other proposals, called for “adopting the amendment that proposes the retirement age for women to be 55 years. This is due to reasons including what was proved by scientific research on the difference between men and women with regard to their physical and physiological makeup, in addition to that fact that there are thousands of unemployed female graduates waiting to have their share in serving the nation.”
Lubna Al-Ansari suggested raising the retirement age to 75 without discrimination between men and women. “Studies confirm that the age of women is longer than the life expectancy of men.” She expressed her surprise at the committee not setting a minimum salary.
Zainab Abu Talib agreed with Al-Ansari’s view that the retirement age should be raised, especially for certain rare professions and specialties such as doctors.