> MY COURSE

Kees van der Plas (age 59) works as senior chief engineer at Stena Line. We talked to the jovial Katwijk resident about his work and his retirement course.

“The sea is in our family. My father was a fisherman and my brother, like me, became a marine engineer. I even fished at sea myself for a short while. But that wasn't my sort of thing. When I was 21, I went to work on the ferry to England. At the Stoomvaart Maatschappij Zeeland, which was later taken over by Stena Line. I've been working here for 38 years, and I really enjoy it. I am proud to lead a team of young professionals who work hard to keep the ship in good technical condition. These days, I sail on a RoPax ferry, the Stena Transit, between the Hook of Holland and Killingholme. This type of ship can carry about four kilometres of trucks and three hundred truck drivers. The retirement age for seafarers used to be 60. This was because it was considered a demanding profession. This was changed to 65, but still with tax arrangements to enable early retirement. In 2015, the retirement age was finally set at 67. Going from 60 to 67 is a much bigger jump than in professions where the state pension age was always 65. This severely impacted our profession. In the new collective labour agreement negotiations, we are advocating retirement at 64, with employers closing the state pension gap between the ages of 64 and 67. Not long ago, a colleague died when he was 60. That got me thinking. I don't want to go on until I'm 67. That's why I'm going to study the details of my pension next year and let the fund advise me. Maybe I can increase my benefit somewhat at the beginning. In my retirement dreams, my wife Jacoline and I are sailing around the Greek islands for months. We love Greece. If our pensions are sufficient, we'll buy a boat and sail off on this adventure.” ←