[Problems associated with variable retirement age (author's transl)]

Problems associated with variable retirement age are very topical in all developed industrial countries, both capitalist and socialist ones. Roughly 15 per cent of the population are over 60 and according to statistics, they can expect to live another 15 to 20 years. We cannot fashion the content and the method of varying retirement age by copying them from the capitalist world without a critical analysis. We must give variable retirement age a new content that would correspond to our socialist society. We must give variable basically aimed at enabling people to stay active at old age rather than just retire. In fixing the time at which working life is to end, disposition and exposure criteria must be taken into consideration. Our views on varying retirement age are presented on the basis of recent studies in this field. Their objectives are in full conformity with the fundamental socialist aim fully to integrated the aged and the ageing into normal community life and to make sure that they are given an opportunity to lead a useful life in the economic or social sphere if they wish to do so. This aim is fully in keeping with the fundamental right to work and to a place of work and with the right to integration into social or intellectual and cultural life of the community.