Due to the danger of serious consequences that could arise from the application of the amended Article 81 of the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance and the general retroactive application of the amended Law on PIO, a group of federal representatives requested on March 12 an evaluation of the constitutionality of Article 81 and the retroactive application of the law.
Until the final decision, they requested the adoption of a temporary measure by which the Constitutional Court would suspend the application of the disputed provisions until the final decision in this case.
– We believe that there is an urgent need for such a measure because the continued application of the law could cause irreparable damage to a large number of people, especially older citizens whose existence directly depends on the rights from the pension system. The state must protect the dignity of pensioners, and not put them in a situation where they are left without a minimum living wage – the request states, among other things.
The request for constitutional review was initiated by the Club of Independent Representatives in the House of Representatives of the FBiH Parliament, and it was supported by representatives of the DF, SDA and the Republican Party.
Before the amendments to Article 81, persons with, for example, 15 years of service and 65 years of age were entitled to a minimum pension. It currently amounts to 666.76 KM. Now Article 81 introduces a differentiated calculation of pensions, so those with up to 20 years of service and 65 years of age cannot have a pension lower than 60 percent of the average pension from December of the previous year, which according to current calculations is 434 KM.
It is necessary to remind that many who have been working since 1996 until today, which is a span of some 30 years, have 16, 17, 20 years of service because their employers did not pay them for service. Workers had the option of working illegally or being unemployed. No one punished such employers, but now the workers who were forced to work for low wages and unregistered are being punished.
– Now we are waiting for the statement of the Constitutional Court and for the Constitutional Court to request information from us as signatories and information from the FBiH Parliament, the competent ministry and the Government of the Federation of BiH in the sense that it is collecting documentation. My guess is that it will be resolved in the next six months. Of course, the question is whether the Constitutional Court will prescribe a measure of temporary ban on the implementation of Article 81 and retroactive application of the Law, which we asked to be prescribed immediately.
They haven’t contacted us yet, the Constitutional Court has not received any correspondence, I only know that they have received the appeal, the request for constitutionality assessment – federal representative Admir Čavalić told Faktor.
To this day, it is not known how people who acquired the conditions for retirement retired from January 1 to 23, when the amendments to the Law on PIO had not yet been enacted, and what about those people who were harmed by the retroactive application of the law that was not in force when they retired. The House of Peoples of the FBiH Parliament confirmed the amendments to the Law on PIO on January 23, 2026, it says Factor.
