Less than three months after issuing pension reform guidelines that did not include a higher retirement age, the Labour Ministry appears to have changed tack and is now saying that a two-year retirement age increase is on the table.

The negotiations "will discuss a two-year increase in retirement age," Igor Feketija, state secretary at the Labour Ministry, told a conference on pension reform on 3 October.

At present people can retire at full pensions at the age of 60 and with 40 years of pension contributions or 65 with at least 15 years of contributions.

Feketija said the required 40 years of service would remain unchanged.

In practice, the retirement age is already higher: men retire on average at almost 63 and women at 62, show the latest data by the Pension and Disability Insurance Institute.

Feketija said the situation regarding pensions was not dire yet so there was still enough time to put in place a pension reform. However, society must be prepared for the future and for demographic change.

He is convinced that pension reform should go hand in hand with long-term care and health reforms.

And while the legislation governing long-term care has been passed, health reform is supposed to accelerate once the new health minister is appointed. The candidate, Valentina Prevolnik Rupel, now a state secretary at the ministry, was just announced on 3 October.

Negotiations with social partners on health reform have not started yet.