Soon there will be no one to fine us for violations committed during the coronavirus pandemic. Although a law accepted in May makes it possible for policemen to stay active until they reach the age of 60, the number of men in uniform requesting retirement nearly tripled in just the first part of this year compared to the similar period in 2018.
In the first part of 2018, 793 policemen asked to go into retirement; in 2019, this number rose to 1,689, while this year so far, 2,196 policemen have asked for retirement. The syndicate of policemen stated that this is due to the difficult labor conditions, inadequate wages, and uncertainty of the legal regulation of military pensions. This last concern is related to the current dispute on special pensions: Many believe they should retire now to avoid a smaller pension later on.
The great increase in retiring policemen this year is, of course, also due to the coronavirus pandemic, as it has led to an increased number of tasks and greater endangerment.
At the same time, the numbers justify the previous assumption that the retirement age was raised in May only to accommodate some police top dogs, who do very little anyway but want to keep their high-salary positions as long as possible. As the union told them, policemen performing duties on the street would retire as soon as possible (at the age of 40-45) because they cannot handle the stress. Of course, uniformed men can also retire if they have performed service for 25 years and 15 of those years were in the field. So the lack of cadre is visibly growing, while the increase in May appears to have been to simply aid a few who do little.
In parallel to this trend, the number of requests for the disabled pension has also more than doubled since 2018. While this figure was 1,003 in 2018, it grew to 1,867 in 2019 and currently stands at 2,365.
Featured photo: Observator
