Judges’ pensions: The calculation of increases is changed by law

With corrective interventions in the salaries of retired judges, the government is trying to overcome the financial “scope” of the Court of Auditors’ decision, which stipulated the necessity of returning judges’ pensions to pre-2012 levels, as subsequent reductions would not be appropriate. In line with the constitution.

According to the information, there is legislation in the works that requires the recalculation of judicial employee pensions based on new rates that will lead to an increase in the salaries of approximately 4,000 retired judges. The increases will be activated after the regulation is approved, while the receipt of retroactive benefits will be curbed and it is expected that their granting will be limited to the 450 judges who have appealed to the justice system.

Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis explained, after the issuance of the Court of Auditors’ decision, that it is not the government’s intention to pay salaries, leaving it to be understood that there will be corrective interventions under the law in the salaries of retired judges in the future.

According to estimates, if the judges’ requests are fully met, the annual budget cost could rise to between 500 and 600 million euros, an amount that exceeds the budget’s capacity.

In fact, as Kostis Hatzidakis said, “Based on the Court of Auditors’ decision, the increases to be given to judges will be in the region of 50%!” “Any increase outside the limits, both in advance and retroactively, will be a challenge for all pensioners.”

The government’s final decisions on the salaries of retired judges are expected to be revealed at the next Cabinet meeting, with the Minister of National Economy and Finance clarifying that “the government’s proposal can in no way exceed the provisions” of the Stabilization Agreement – which has already been submitted to Brussels – and of course “It will be consistent with previous decisions of both the State Council and the Court of Accounts on the issue of pensions.”

The economic team’s goal is to reach a compromise and balanced solution that takes into account the Supreme Court’s decision, but without compromising the country’s financial stability and creating a new deficit in the country’s insurance system.

What are they called?

It should be noted that the decisions of the plenary session of the Accounting Council give the procedural possibility to about 4,000 retired judges, prosecutors and members of the State Legal Council, to request carbon requests to retroactively restore their pensions to 2012 levels, as ruled by the Salary Court and the plenary session of the Supreme Financial Court, after the acquittal. Three judges had appealed at the beginning of 2021 before the Accounting Board, demanding the implementation of the decisions of the Salaries Court.

With the decisions of the Salary Court, in addition to the memorandum reductions, two articles of the Catrogallo Law, Article 8 on replacement rates and Article 14 on recalculation of pensions and personal disputes, were repealed as unconstitutional, especially for judges.

On this basis, the judges believe that their pension should be calculated on the basis of the pensioner’s last salary, which is also high, and not on the average salary from 2002 onwards, as is currently the case for all retirees.

At the same time, they claim that the replacement rates for their pension calculations should be higher than the rest of the pensioners. That is, retired judges are demanding increases ranging between 6,000 and 30,000 euros annually.

Source: printed copy »News»