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Push to raise civil service retirement age faces scrutiny
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New recruits take their civil service oath on March 22, 2024, during an induction ceremony at Bogor City Hall in Bogor, West Java. (Antara/Arif Firmansyah)
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mid ongoing discussions to revise the State Civil Apparatus Law, a proposal to raise the retirement age for state workers to as high as 70 has been met with skepticism from both the government and lawmakers, who see little urgency in the idea.
The suggestion came earlier this month from the Indonesian Association of Civil Servants (Korpri), via a formal letter from its chair, Zudan Arif Fakrulloh, to President Prabowo Subianto.
Zudan, who also leads the National Civil Service Agency (BKN), said during a webinar last week that the proposal was based on “the aspirations” of civil servants across state institutions and regional administrations.
“As life expectancy [for Indonesians] has increased and because civil servants are getting healthier, more prosperous and their performance is also improving, a lot of them have proposed that their retirement age be raised,” Zudan said.
Longer careers, he said, would allow civil servants to continue honing their skills and contribute better to the President’s national agenda with greater peace of mind.
To this end, Korpri suggests that the pension age of those holding utama (primary leadership) positions, who are heads of government institutions, should be increased to 65 years old, madya (senior leadership) positions, such as directors general and provincial secretaries, to 63, and pratama (first-level leadership) positions, such as directors and heads of regional agencies, to 62. The retirement age for the three roles are currently capped at 60 under the 2023 law.
For civil servants with specialized roles, on the other hand, Korpri proposes raising the retirement age of primary experts from 65 to 70, senior experts from 60 to 65, intermediate experts to 62 and junior experts to 60.
