GTUC Presses for Accurate Pensions, Greater Accountability

By Mark DaCosta-At the heart of this matter is a simple proposition advanced by the Guyana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) in its column, The Voice of Labour, of 11 October. Retirement income is wages deferred over decades, and the State and its agencies owe workers the correct sum, calculated openly and paid on time. That principle is now being tested in the High Court, where pensioners and three trade unions allege that the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) has been underpaying its most vulnerable retirees.

The timing of the GTUC’s intervention is hard to ignore. Days before its column appeared, attorney-at-law Christopher Ram, himself a pensioner, joined a second pensioner and three unions in filing an application against the National Insurance Board. They are represented by Christopher Ram and fellow attorney Khemraj Ramjattan. The court is asked to decide what the Board is legally bound to do when the minimum old-age pension must be adjusted. The applicants contend that the Board failed to keep those payments in step with increases in the public service minimum wage.

Full coveragePensioners and Unions Sue National Insurance Board Over Old-Age Pension Arrears6 reports

By their reckoning, each minimum pensioner is short by $8,098 a month, and the accumulated arrears could approach $510,300 per person. They want those arrears paid with statutory interest. They also want the matter resolved quickly, because those affected are elderly and many live close to the margin.