Partial retirement: AMS expects many applications
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The Public Employment Service (AMS) assumes that the semi-retirement model could be used more frequently in the future. Around 2,500 Salzburg residents are currently employed in semi-retirement. You can choose a part-time or block model five years before you retire.
Employees who opt for partial retirement reduce their working hours five years before retirement, but retain full pension entitlement and their severance pay. According to the AMS, the right to flexibility in the workplace has taken on a completely different status since the pandemic.
AMS: Short-time work has fueled a reduction in hours
The labor market service is observing a rethinking of those who have started and assumes that in Salzburg it will not remain at 2,500 in partial retirement in the future. Short-time work with a maximum working time of 80 percent has forced a rethink, says AMS country manager Jacqueline Beyer. “People who couldn’t have imagined it before, who always wrote full-time, have noticed that part-time work might be affordable. That brought about a major rethink and this is the situation we are in now,” says Beyer.
Flexibility is also important for employee acquisition
In general, the labor market has gone through a transformation process over the past two years. In the future I will play an even bigger role – also to recruit new employees, says Beyer.
Companies: “Semi-retirement is necessary”
The company Fahnen Gärtner in Mittersill (Pinzgau) knows the advantages and disadvantages of partial retirement. There are always up to four employees in semi-retirement in the company. The Pinzgau-based company offers various part-time models – 80 percent of the employees are women. The model of switching to part-time work five years before retirement was also supported from the start.
The flag producer has seen that the reduction in working hours is necessary at a certain age and that state support for partial retirement is also attractive for the company, says HR manager Heidi English.
Businesses want expansion
Still need it improvements. “We no longer have a block variant because state support here is only 50 percent and you have to hire a replacement employee immediately. This is difficult when the other employee is still in the house. That’s why we work with the part-time option,” explains Head of Human Resources English. According to the company, 90 percent of the subsidy is supported in this variant.
