ROME, June 10 (Reuters) - Italy's cabinet agreed on Thursday to raise the retirement age for women working in the public sector to 65 from 2012, as requested by the European Union, the welfare minister said.
The cabinet will present an amendment to its austerity budget to make the change, which raises the female retirement age by five years to bring it in line with that for men, Welfare Minister Maurizio Sacconi told reporters.
Both men and women in the public and private sectors can still retire before 65 if they have worked for a sufficient number of years, under a system which combines workers’ age with the number of years of pension contributions paid.
The measure approved on Thursday will initially produce only negligible savings for public finances of 50 million euros ($60 million) in 2012, said Civil Service Minister Renato Brunetta.
However these will gradually increase and by 2019 total savings will amount to 1.45 billion euros, he said.
Brunetta said the measures had no implications for private sector workers, where the average retirement age is around 61.
