The German Civil Service Federation (dbb) strictly rejects the proposal by the new Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Bärbel Bas, to include civil servants in the statutory pension system.

"We clearly reject compulsory single insurance," said dbb Federal Chairman Ulrich Silberbach to the German Press Agency in Berlin.

Including civil servants in statutory pension insurance would mean that employers would have to pay the additional employer contribution to the pension insurance. At the same time, civil servants' gross salaries would have to be increased to meet their contribution obligations, Silberbach explained. "Thus, a system change would involve enormous costs overall. Ms. Bas doesn't say where the money for this would come from right now."

Bas had told the Funke Media Group newspapers that the revenues of the statutory pension insurance system needed to be improved. "Civil servants, members of parliament, and the self-employed should also contribute to the pension insurance system."