In 2012 the retirement age for men is 58 and 40 years or service, and for women 57 and four months plus almost 38 years of pensionable service.

A total of 714 individuals currently meet the criteria, according to Public Administration Ministry data, the bulk (357) in police ranks.

It is unlikely, though, that all will be sent to retirement, as this could cause problems in particular in the police force, which is grappling with staff shortages as it is.

The law includes a caveat in that it gives the employer the possibility to keep such workers if retirement would badly interrupt the workflow.

But there are no specific rules to establish when this condition is fulfilled, opening the possibility of vastly different interpretations of what "interrupted workflow" means.

The Public Administration Ministry says this will be checked by the "appropriate inspectoral services".

The vagueness has led some critics to suggest that the rules could conveniently be used to get rid of politically incompatible employees.

But quite apart from that, the impact on public finances is far from clear since an increased influx of retirees would further burden the already strained pension system.

Moreover, it runs contrary to the stated aim of making people work longer, which will be a linchpin of the pension reform that the government plans to start preparing soon.

Bernard Brščič, an economist at the Ljubljana Faculty of Economics, says the rules are a "negative measure" in that reduced pressure on direct budget spending will be offset by higher pressure on the pension fund.

It is also a "weird signal" in the context of the announced pension reform, he told the STA.

What is more, Slovenia has "very negative" experiences with early retirement in the 1990s, which Brščič said are a key cause of the current problems in the pension system.

"This appears to be another attempt at using the pension system as an appendix of social policy," he said.

Jože Mencinger, professor at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law who already meets the conditions for requirement, agrees that the proposal runs contrary to the very essence of pension reform.

"It is also a case of age discrimination," he noted in a recent interview for public TV Slovenija.