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Part VII (Miscellaneous provisions), Article 42 of the Convention (in relation to Article 15, paragraph 3). In answer to the Committee's previous comments on the lowering of the retirement age for categories of workers engaged in arduous or unhealthy work, the Government indicates that the Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance Act (AVS), as amended in the tenth revision which will enter into force on 1 January 1997, allows the old-age pension to be claimed early, not only for persons who have worked in arduous or unhealthy occupations, but for the whole population. The Government stresses that in a single system, designed to protect the whole population, it is difficult to lay down a different retirement age for certain categories of workers, as some countries do in the "special" schemes (for example, for seafarers or miners). In addition, examination of Article 15, paragraph 3, of the Convention - in relation to Swiss legislation - shows that only men are affected since it is only for them that retirement age is fixed at 65. For women, the Old-Age and Survivors' Insurance Act, as amended, provides an increase in retirement age which will go from 62 to 64 years in two stages: the age giving a woman entitlement to an old-age pension will be 63 from the year 2001 and 64 from the year 2005. Specifically, it will be possible for men to claim old-age pension one year before retirement age from 1997, two years for men and one year for women from 2001, and two years for women from 2005. With regard to the amount of benefits calculated in application of Article 17 and 18 of the Convention, the Government indicates that this should be in conformity with the requirement of the Convention. In any event, since the tenth revision of the AVS has also fundamentally modified the system of old-age pensions by abolishing the couples' pension and replacing it by individual pensions, it is impossible for the moment to calculate the amount of the pension to which a standard beneficiary would be entitled from 1997, with or without early claim. The Government states that it will give all the appropriate information in its next reports.

The Committee notes this information with interest. It hopes that, in its next report, the Government will be able to confirm that the amount of the pension, in the event of early retirement, will be in conformity with the requirements of the Convention, at least in regard to the categories of workers referred to in Article 15, paragraph 3, of the Convention.