| — Carl Greenidge“Keep your shoulders to the wheel and things will be delivered eventually,” was the assurance of Shadow Minister of Finance, Carl Greenidge,Cheap NFL Jerseys, when he delivered an address to the gathering at the Guyana Telecommunications Corporation/Guyana Telephone and Telegraph (GTC/GT&T) Pensioners Association General Meeting and Membership conference yesterday.He was at the time alluding to the unpaid pensions of former Telecoms workers,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, a situation that has over the past few years been gaining controversial attention.APNU’s Carl GreenidgeMoreover, at the forum yesterday which was held at the Guyana Postal and Telecommunication Workers’ Union hall, East Street, Georgetown, there was particular focus directed to the pension issue.The state of affairs, according to Greenidge, “is unfair for all sorts of reasons.” He insisted that former workers not being afforded what they deserve “can’t be justified.”In his deliberations, he noted,Wholesale NFL China Jerseys, “I am sure that in 1992 you also would not have anticipated that a Government coming to power with all the promises that it made in 1992…all the things that Dr Jagan said about incomes, for example,Jerseys From China, what he would do…persons could not believe that 20 odd years later you would be in this situation where the Government itself is essentially stealing monies that are due to you.”But according to the APNU spokesman, the problem of pensions is in fact one that is rather complicated,http://www.airmaxfantasy.us.com/Adidas/, be it old age pension, contributory pension, partially contributory pension or even occupational pension. This is in light of the fact that they require at some point input, from the State. Therefore the condition of the government’s finances matter.And given the fact that it is the Government that has withheld the pension due to the Telecoms retirees, Greenidge noted that the situation could be one that is even farther reaching whereby youths could be dissuaded from even elevating themselves academically.A section of the affected seniors yesterday“The youngsters can look around and see their parents having worked for 40 years struggling as retirees and they will assure themselves that they don’t have to bother getting qualified.They will take up gold mining or seek to become outlaws of one form or the other; or they might just migrate…where without the skills you get better pay.”In order to address this state of affairs, he underscored the need to address the welfare of the retirees. “Any society that claims to be modern, claims to be a caring society needs to ensure that poverty and destitution is not the fate of those who are finished working.”Greenidge added that huge parts of the nation’s poor are in fact the aged and the retirees as well as women.He noted that it is an unfortunate when Governments find themselves in situations where they can’t properly look after pensions because “pensions of the type that we are talking about – the contributory pensions, the NIS – these matter from the point of view of economic management.”Greenidge, reflecting on a time when he functioned as Chief Planning Officer, spoke of the need to be concerned about pension and pension schemes since these can in fact affect investments. In explaining the process, he noted that money collected in this regard is used to buy securities or it is spent by the Government. As such, upon their retirement, retirees are paid with future taxes.In excess of $20 million in outstanding pension and gratuity benefits is owed to former GTC/GT&T workers.The daunting situation had its genesis in 1990 when moves were made by the then Government to privatise the GTC. At the time the workers were each issued with a letter stating “…you will be continued in employment with GT&T and your service will be treated as continuous and unbroken and the other conditions of service will not be less favourable than what you presently enjoy.”And based on that agreement, it was understood that the former employees, upon retirement from GT&T, should have received their pension and gratuity from the present Government through the Ministry of Finance, in keeping with the Pension and Corporation Acts.But instead of receiving what was promised, the former workers continued to receive their gratuity as at December 1990 without interest and the Government minimum pension of $18,000 per month across the board.At a forum to raise concern about the state of affairs a few years ago,Cheap Stitched Jerseys, it was noted that an affected former technician for instance should have been receiving a monthly pension of at least $50,000, while a former Manager should have been the recipient of way over $100,000 per month.The union representing the workers has written several letters to the relevant authorities to rectify the situation but to no avail. There have also been several protest actions to retaliate the non-payment of the owed monies.Yesterday’s forum which saw the attendance of a number of affected retirees was held under the theme “Striving for the Improvement of Pensioners’ Welfare and Wellbeing.” The forum was chaired by Vice President of the GTC/GT&T Pensioners Association, Reginald Sampson.There were remarks by its President Mr Donald Nurse as well as representatives of the Guyana Trade Union Congress, Lincoln Lewis and Norris Witter. |
