By Wendy Anders

The Costa Rican Social Security Agency (CCSS, in Spanish) announced Thursday immediate measures intended to bolster the country’s largest old age, disability and life insurance fund (IVM, in Spanish) to ensure its viability in the long term, said the CCSS press office.

The agency’s board of directors approved five short-term measures this week to bolster the state pension fund.

María del Rocío Sáenz Madrigal, executive president of the CCSS, announced the changes as follows, 1. Diversifying the fund’s investment and strengthening its financial management, 2. Strengthening of the institutional risk management through the formation of an institutional risk unit independent of the CCSS administration, 3. Extending coverage for self-employed workers by making it easier to affiliate, 4. Increasing contributions by workers by 1 percent, and increasing contributions to the fund by the state by 0.66 percent, and 5. Initiating a 6-month national dialogue in March in which a long-term action plan is drafted.

Board members said the increases in contributions by employers and the state would ideally begin in June, and would be presented to the public for comment prior to then.

The decision came under fire from a number of sectors who noted that workers were being asked to increase their contributions, while employers were not, as reported in a number of national media outlets. The proposed 1 percent increased contribution by workers represents a 35 percent increase in current employee payments into the fund, said informatico.com, a digital Costa Rican news site.

Some public sector unions immediately launched calls on social media for strikes in February to protest the planned increases in worker contributions to the pension plan.

Jaime Barrantes, CCSS pension fund manager, said that the changes to the IVM regime are in response to recommendations made by the University of Costa Rica on the fund’s future liquidity and sustainability. He said there is enough time to make decisions that ensure the fund’s viability in the long term. The IVM fund has been granting pensions for 70 years without fail, said Barrantes.

The IVM currently has 1,505,792 contributors, and covers around 63 percent of the working population, said the CCSS.

As of September 2016, the institution had 51,400 people on disability pension, 115,135 on retirement pension, and 59,449 on death pensions, for a total of 225,984 beneficiaries, continued the agency.