A new round is coming retroactive payment of up to 50,000 euros to 12,000 pensioners, while on April 17 the Supreme Special Court will decide whether or not to grant the gifts (Christmas and Easter) and the holiday allowance to pensioners for the time period after 2012. Depending on the decision of Government decisions are awaited.
In particular, towards the end of April, the increases and retrospectives from the recalculation of pensions will be paid to approximately 2,000 beneficiaries from Legal Entities under Public Law, while in May 10,000 former bank employees will be paid. And in this group, the amounts that will be paid according to estimates exceed 15,000 euros and in some cases even reach 50,000 euros. Retirees who retired with 36-40 years of insurance will receive more retroactively as they benefit from the improved replacement rates of the Vroutsis law.
It is emphasized that 1,085 pensioners of ISAP have already been paid, who retrospectively collected 12,900 euros on average. A few days ago, 6,465 pensioners of the former Olympic Aviation were paid sums, totaling 29,889,555.15 euros, which are retroactively related to the recalculation of pensions. Therefore, each of the above pensioners received approximately 4,600 euros on average. However, pensioners of Olympiaki received meager retroactive payments as taxation “ate” the recalculation. Beneficiaries received much lower amounts than they were actually entitled to due to taxation. As the pensioners’ representatives explain, any additional tax must be paid in relation to each year and not as a total amount, based on the tax scale that applies to each pensioner separately, depending on their annual income.
Regarding the trial at the AED on April 17 and until the decision on the gifts is issued, the adjudication of the appeals brought by approximately 370,000 pensioners, who claim retroactive gifts and the return of the cuts in the supplementary pensions for the 11th month of June 2015, is frozen. May 2016. The case does not concern the reductions imposed on supplementary pensions, which means that even if the AED rejects the return of the gifts, the pensioners have to get their supplementary pensions retroactively.
As lawyer Loukas Apostolidis stated, on April 17 the Supreme Special Court will hear the constitutionality or otherwise of the provision of Law 4093/2012 regarding the payment of gifts from 2015-2018 in the private sector.
In the legal proceedings, the decision of the AED will rule on the constitutionality of the above provision, as a legislator, for the payment of gifts retroactively from 2015 to 2018. And of course, for the unity of the legal order of the country, the decision will also be extended in the public sector. Since the issuance of Decree No. 1509/2023 which ruled differently from the decisions of the Plenary of the Council of Ministers 2287 and 2288/2015, more than 700 lawsuits have been postponed and until the decision is issued we will exceed 1,200 lawsuits. It is time – adds L. Apostolidis – to review the institution of pilot courts regarding respect for the implementation of decisions. Over 250,000 beneficiaries are suffering and of course the administrative courts remain “heavily” loaded with retroactive lawsuits. With three consecutive decisions of the Plenary of the Council of Ministers and the Labor Court, it was decided that the abolition of holiday gifts and leave, which took place in the year 2012, is against the Constitution as it violates constitutional provisions and the provisions of the ECHR. “We reasonably hope for a positive outcome of the case”, concluded L. Apostolidis.
It is underlined that the gifts reached the Special Court from the Supreme Court, which rejected an appeal by a pensioner of the Council of Ministers and disagreed with the decisions of the Council of Ministers, which ruled that the abolition of the gifts is unconstitutional.
The new trial for the gifts will be held at the AED on April 17, this time by the Special Court, following the disagreement of the Supreme Court with the decisions of the Supreme Court (2287-2288/2015) which ruled that the abolition of gifts is unconstitutional and pensioners are entitled to take 11 months retroactively from their gifts.
It is recalled that the SC, with a new decision (in 1342/2023), ruled that gifts for supplementary benefits have been completely abolished for EFKA pensioners after the Katrougalos law. This decision does not cancel the retroactive gifts of June 11, 2015 – May 2016, and above all it did not prevent the issuance of positive decisions by the Courts of First Instance, until the gifts were referred by the Supreme Court to the Special Court and the Courts of First Instance suspended the issuance of newer decisions .
The reason why the Supreme Court with its decision 1509/2023 came in complete opposition to the Plenary Session of the CoE is because it rejected a lawsuit by a pensioner of the Bank of Greece who claims from the insurance organization of the Bank of Greece the return of all gifts from 2013 onwards, total amount of 16,162 euros. On the occasion of this case, the CA refers the issue of the abolition of gifts for a new judgment to the Supreme Special Court.
In its decision, however, the CA states that the abolition of gifts from the auxiliary may be permissible as long as “the dignified living of the pensioners is not endangered”, while especially for the pensioners of the Bank of Greece it observes that, after the abolition of the gifts, the amount of the pension of the pensioners of the TtE affected by the disputed regulation is still greater than that of the average main and auxiliary pension granted by IKA-ETAM and there is no question of jeopardizing their dignified livelihood.
