José Chavez is taking a break, but there is no question of sitting down. This 69-year-old mechanic, who works six days a week, receives only 150,000 pesos (176 euros) in pension per month. "So I have to keep working", explains the Chilean in a khaki work suit, leaning against the wall of his small kitchen.
He and his wife built this house in the 1980s, in a popular area of Peñalolen, on the edge of Santiago. "A chance, because if we were not owners, I do not know how we would do"sighs Marta Elena Caamaño, 66 years old. She also still works as a domestic worker, three days a week, in a beautiful area of the Chilean capital, where "Better not to talk too much about the social movement", which has been going on since mid-October in Chile. The couple, he wholeheartedly supports the mobilization against inequality in the country.
Among the protesters' many demands, the overhaul of the pension system is one of the most significant. Currently, Chilean workers have to pay 10% of their wages into an account managed by one of the seven "pension fund administrators" (AFP). These private companies, which place these savings on the financial markets – and generally derive immense profits from them – then return these funds to the Chileans by calculating the monthly payments on the basis of an average life expectancy.
"No employer contribution"
This system of individual capitalization, pioneer of the genre, was put in place during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet, in 1981. Its architect, the ultra-liberal economist José Piñera – the brother of the current right-wing president Sebastian Piñera – compared it , three years ago, at "A Mercedes-Benz: a luxury car, well made and sophisticated".
However, today, half of retirees who have contributed to the AFP system receive less than 134,000 pesos (157 euros) per month, according to Claudia Sanhueza, economist and researcher at the Center for Conflict and Social Cohesion Studies (COES) . “There are several reasons for this. Salaries are low, and so are contributions. In addition, there is no employer contribution. "
The labor market is also particularly fragile, in a country where almost 30% of jobs are not declared. "It is rare that people keep the same job for a long time, and there is no solidarity mechanism to offer compensation to people who have contributed less", says the economist.
