The union initiative against raising retirement age, called "67 is too much" has collected a sufficient number of signatures for a referendum to be called about the Pension Act, the Public Administration Ministry advised at a cabinet meeting on Thursday.

The government endorsed the report submitted by the ministry regarding the signature collection procedure and forwarded the report into parliamentary procedure.

The initiative collected almost twice the number of signatures required to call a referendum. The ministry determined that 708,713 valid signatures had been collected.

In order for a pension eligibility conditions referendum to be called, it was necessary to collect at least 373,568 signatures (10% of the total electorate), while the unions have said that they have counted more than 700,000 signatures.

An examination of the number and validity of signatures on a sample of 49,962 voters determined that there are 708,713 valid signatures, state-secretary in the Administration Ministry, Darko Nekic said today.

Parliament now has to decide whether it will call the referendum or whether it will request the Constitutional Court to check the constitutionality of the referendum question.

Signatures were collected for two weeks this spring for a referendum petition for restoring the statutory retirement age from 67 to 65.