The European Commission has said that different statutory retirement ages for men and women is gender discrimination, answering a major Polish trade union questions about the government's changes to the retirement age.

In 2016, Poland's ruling conservatives undid a 2012 reform to increase the statutory retirement age to 67 years, up from 65 for men and 60 for women.

The Solidarity trade union asked the European Commission to weigh in on the matter after the commission's deputy chief Frans Timmermans slammed proposed judicial changes in Poland, which included varying the retirement age for male and female judges.

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva said the European Union has rules which aim to implement gender equality, which extends to social security and the retirement age.

She said the small number of European Union countries still had a gender gap in retirement ages were not required to change their laws immediately but were expected to take steps towards equality.

She added that Poland's reintroduction of discrimination was not in the spirit of European Union laws. (vb)

Source: PAP