Amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, (FBiH) which were adopted last week, bring certain changes in terms of early retirement of former veterans who have reached the age of 58. The details of this law were discussed with the director of the institute, Zijad Krnjic.
These amendments to the law were unanimously adopted in the House of Peoples in the text as it was adopted in the House of Representatives. The Institute director, Krnjic, was asked whether and to which categories of the veteran population will this law improve pensions?
“We studied the text as it was adopted because the federal institute must implement it and the most important thing in its text, which affects the pension of the most vulnerable veterans, is to apply it 8 days after publication, which is constitutionally correct and that its norms aren’t related to the law on early retirement. It means that this law will not increase the pensions of: demobilized veterans, martyrs’ families, war invalids, war commanders, so far retired veterans under the Law on PIO/MIO, where war service was part of the conditions for retirement, “Krnjic explained.
However, will some categories get bigger pensions by applying this law?
“Yes, the pension will be increased for those who apply for retirement after the publication of this law, and who have had most of their seniority in better- paid jobs since 1996, and have confirmations that they participated in the defense of BiH. According to our situation in FBiH, these are mostly jobs in public administration and public companies, and probably a small number of exceptions, ” Krnjic emphasized.
But, for weeks and months, the public has been imagining that a law will be passed that will improve the position of the most endangered veteran categories when they retire. How is it possible that in the end we get a law that does not improve their position at all, and it is improved for those who were in a better position even before?
“Yes, it has been promoted by populist slogans of that kind and no one could think of that this text of the law will not improve the position of the most endangered categories. The government, the ministry, us, and many others have said and written that this text is not good. The government gave a negative opinion, but the populist thunder was stronger. My assumption is that deputies and delegates in both houses did not carefully study the effects this text would have, but were guided by the need not to be labeled as anti-veterans and uncritically accepted the populist thunder of the creators of this text. Now those who had high expectations, mostly demobilized veterans with little experience, low salaries, will be disappointed, so they will have a problem explaining to them what happened. In the end, I want to mention that everything that was said about the effects that such a text of the Law on Amendments to the Law on PIO/MIO will have, is not an unofficial observation of the federal institute MIO/PIO, but crystal clear legal norms written in the text itself,” concluded Krnjic, Klix.ba writes.
E.Dz.
