Retirement at 60 to increase unemployment: Sanjha Morcha

The Sanjha Morcha on Wednesday slammed the Punjab government's move to increase the retirement age of its employees to 60 years, saying that it would add to the financial burden on the state and escalate the prevailing unemployment.

The Sanjha Morcha on Wednesday slammed the Punjab government's move to increase the retirement age of its employees to 60 years, saying that it would add to the financial burden on the state and escalate the prevailing unemployment.

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Dubbing the move "foolish economics", People's Party of Punjab (PPP) president Manpreet Singh Badal said in a statement here that the morcha, at its meeting in Barnala, felt that the decision would lead to a situation where the youth would wait for two more years in the hope of employment.

"People who are at their retirement age are already at the higher salary level, and two more years mean that they would get two more annual increments, leading to higher salary bill for the state government. This, in turn, implies that the pension bill would be higher since the pension is paid on the last salary drawn," Manpreet said.

"These factors - more increments, more pension expenditure and non-replacement by younger staff would end up costing the state government much more than they hope to save," he said.

The morcha, which includes the PPP, Communist Party of India (CPI), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) and Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal), viewed the move as an anti-youth measure since the youngsters would now be waiting for another two years for government jobs, with little scope in the private sector.