Polish Workers Protest Against Pension Reform Plan

As part of the protests,rail workers blocked tracks in the northern city of Bydgoszcz and Katowice in the south, disrupting train services.

About 500 people demonstrated outside the Polish parliament on Thursday against a government plan to cut the number of workers entitled to retire early.

As part of the protests, rail workers blocked tracks in the northern city of Bydgoszcz and Katowice in the south, disrupting train services throughout the country.

To cut government spending, Prime Minister Donald Tusk's centre-right government wants to reduce to 240,000 from 1.2 million the number of workers eligible to retire early under existing rules.

Annual expenditure on early retirement pensions would drop to between 500 million and 600 million zlotys ($215.8 million) from 4 billion to 5 billion, according to Labour Ministry figures.

The measure is also designed to help relieve labour shortages affecting several sectors of the economy, such as construction.

Labour groups, including teachers' unions, oppose retirement reform.

"We will not agree to such solutions. These are our basic needs," Janusz Sniadek, head of Poland's largest labour union, told the demonstrators.

Earlier this week, several thousand workers clashed with police outside the prime minister's office.

Under current rules, some workers may retire after as little as 15 years' employment.

Parliament was expected to vote on the measure late on Thursday. The cabinet approved it in September.

To become law, the bill must be signed by President Lech Kaczynski, who has spoken publicly against the reform and has the power to veto it.

"Poland has a problem with people who retire too early. That problem exists, there is no doubt about that," Kaczynski told a news conference in Ljubljana during a visit to Slovenia.

"The other matter is how fast we can solve these problems ... there are certain habits in Poland and some (social) groups have been using those privileges for years -- can this be done with no sufficient preparations?", he added.

Tusk's government has been negotiating with unions and employers' organisations for several months. As a concession it increased the number of those entitled to early retirement by 100,000.