From this month, the retirement ages for women and men have been equalized in Azerbaijan.
So, who can retire earlier? How can this list be expanded?
Speaking to Medianews.az on the subject, Member of the National Assembly Vüqar Bayramov stated that the right to retire earlier applies not only to large families but also to a number of other citizens: "The right to a pension under preferential conditions is established by the 'Labour Pensions' Law. Specifically, Article 8 of the Law defines 'persons entitled to labor pensions by age under preferential conditions due to children,' while Article 9 defines 'other persons entitled to labor pensions under preferential conditions.'
According to this Law, women and men who have five or more children or have a child with a disability, including children adopted or taken under guardianship who have lost their parents or have been deprived of parental care up to eight years old, have the right to a labor pension by age with the retirement age reduced by 5 years, provided the children are alive up to the age of eight. This means that in large families, mothers—and if fathers use this right—they retire at 60 years old."
V. Bayramov noted that the list of our citizens who earn the right to a pension under preferential conditions according to Article 9 of the Law is quite extensive: "Thus, regardless of the last workplace, men who have worked for at least 12 years and 6 months and women who have worked at least 10 years in special branches of fine arts, underground work, and jobs with particularly harmful and heavy working conditions as included in the list approved by the Cabinet of Ministers have the right to a labor pension by age with the retirement age reduced by 5 years. Additionally, persons affected by hypovigyanism (dwarfs) and physiologically disproportionate dwarfs with at least 5 years of insurance experience have their pension age reduced by 20 years.
Employees working in civil aviation flight and flight-test crew related positions who have at least 25 years in those jobs, and those dismissed from flying duties for health reasons who have at least 20 years of insurance experience in those jobs, can receive a labor pension 15 years earlier. At the same time, employees in several state sectors, including prosecution, military service, justice agencies, etc., also have the right to retire earlier depending on their length of service.
Alongside all these, we also present our proposals regarding granting the right to early retirement to more citizens. Deepening pension reforms actualizes the use of qualitative indicators alongside quantitative indicators in determining retirement age. This can enable many of our citizens, including women, to retire earlier."
Nailə Qasımova,