Final Word from Friday, April 25, 2008
Returned emigrants and anyone else who hasn't been able to qualify for a Czech pension, despite putting in years of toil, might have a flicker of hope of a happier retirement, thanks to the Constitutional Court's ruling on sick pay. If, as the Court ruled this week, it's unconstitutional to deny workers sick pay for the first three days of illness because they were "required to pay for sickness insurance and must receive compensation," it's only a short step to requiring the state to give at least a limited pension to anyone who has paid social-security tax. The 25-year qualifying period, it seems, would have to be abolished. So would all those tables showing how long the pay-as-you-go pension system can last before it runs out of money. But only if the Constitutional Court continues to try to dictate policy that is rightly left to elected politicians. Václav Klaus calls its "judgeocracy" (government by the judiciary), and the Czech Constitutional Court is now taking it to new heights.[Czech Republic soudcokracie payment sickness social]
Glossary of difficult words
judgeocracy - (not a generally accepted word in English) government by the judiciary (soudcokracie, in Czech);
to toil - to work;
flicker - a very brief and faint experience of an emotion or feeling;
pay-as-you-go - pension system under which current tax revenue is used to cover the state's current pension obligations, without advance funding or creation of reserves.