Banking unions demand payment of additional payments to pensioners in October

The three banking unions today demanded the payment of the pensioner supplement announced by the government for October, stating that the measures do not cover pensioners in the sector.

“Diplomas have been omitted by law, which ultimately leads us to the conclusion that retired bank employees will not be eligible for an extraordinary pension for October,” Cristina Damiao, from Mais Sindicato, i.e. Union of Bank Employees Center (SBC) and the Portuguese Financial Sector Union (SBN), one of the three sponsors of the joint communiqué sent to the editors today.

According to Cristina Damian, the unions want the government to “pass a law so that this measure applies to all pensioners equally.”

“We have pensioners whose pensions are paid entirely by the banks’ pension funds, we have pensioners who are paid partly by the banks and partly by Social Security, and we have pensioners. […] from the age of 55, whose retirement is paid by banks. The government did not bother to say that these workers are subject to government measures, because this is a universal measure,” said Christina Damian.

According to the trade union leader, it is the government that should support the payment of this emergency measure.

“We understand that the Government should do this. The measure is an emergency one, an extraordinary pension, and the banks, as individuals, will finally say that the Government should define the rules, which it has not done,” the leader added.

The unions scheduled a meeting with the labor secretary “to discuss the matter” for Tuesday.

In a statement released today, Mais, SBC and SBN say that if the inflation mitigation measures do not cover bank pensioners, the three unions “will not comply and will require the competent authorities to consistently review the constitutionality of the legislative package with the Constitutional Court.”

The government announced as part of the family support package to respond to inflation, the assignment of an emergency allowance to pensioners for disability, old age and the loss of the supporter of the social security system and pensioners for retirement, retirement and survival of the convergent system living in the national territory.

The grant, paid as a lump sum in October, will correspond to 50% of the total amount earned in October 2022 in the form of pensions or allowances for dependents, dependents of a spouse, emergency solidarity or emergency minimum pension.

Excluded are pensioners with pensions exceeding the Social Assistance Index (IAS) by more than 12 times – about 5,300 euros.

Although this emergency assistance is paid along with your October pension, this emergency assistance will be subject to separate IRS withholding — a solution that prevents people from “climbing up” the withholding table and paying a higher tax rate in October.

The government also announced a pension upgrade that will apply in early 2023 and will range from 4.43% to 3.53% depending on the size of the pension, compared to the 7.1% to 8% fluctuation in the formula. .

Answering a question about this component, Cristina Damian noted that it is not a matter of trade unions.

“There we have collective negotiations, and it is with the bank that we must negotiate an increase,” he concluded.