Thursday 28 October 2010

Uzbekistan to force pension-age workers to retire - UzNews.net

Uznews.net – In line with a decree by Uzbek President Islam Karimov, working pension-age people who often do low-paid jobs will lose half of their pensions.

This means that the president abolished his decree of 17 March 1999 that aimed to keep pension-age workers in low-paid jobs that were not popular with young people.

Working pension-age public-sector workers are sceptical about the new measures, as they think young people do not want to replace them in their jobs.

Uzbekistan’s vocational colleges produce tens of thousands of young specialists every year, but low-paid public-sector jobs, like nurses or librarians, are not attractive enough to them because these jobs do not pay even $100 a month.

“The authorities will again face shortages of workers, because only young women who are supported by husbands and have nothing to do at home take up jobs we do,” a Tashkent-based hospital nurse said.

Another group of young women who do these jobs are those who come from provinces and who often do not have degrees. They usually work as cleaners in medical establishments.

It is not clear who will replace experienced nurses, librarians and workers of boarding schools for disabled children and orphanages now.