Pensioners forced to petition Parliament for their benefits

The plight of scores of pensioners has engaged the National Assembly and the House voted yesterday to have the matter dealt with in a Special Select Committee.

Winston Brassington

The petition on behalf of the disgruntled pensioners in a quest for just pension benefits, was brought to the House by Trevor Williams of the Alliance For Change (AFC). Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, read out the contents to the Members of Parliament prior to a vote. A Partnership for National Unity’s (APNU) Carl Greenidge, seconded the petition. He urged that it be dealt with expeditiously given that it is a sore issue that has dragged on for too long. The Clerk informed the Parliamentarians in a correspondence dated February 10, 2000 from Winston Brassington, the Executive Secretary of the Privatization Unit, to Carol Hebert, former Secretary to the Treasury, on the payment of pension benefits to former employees of Guyana Telephone Corporation (GTC), “He stated that it was the Privatisation Unit’s view that those employees who would have fallen in this bracket and would have attained the age of 55 and were still employed by GT&T should have been paid their retirement benefits because it was monies already earned by them, and in fact they should have been paid since 1991 when the company was privatised as is the practice.” Brassington added that there were several employees who had accepted the termination offer and had not yet been paid. He recommended that those employees also be paid their pension and gratuity as computed as at January 31, 1991. The Clerk further told the House that by way of correspondence dated January 31, 2001, to Brassington, from Godfrey Statia, Consultant, Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company, on the valuation of GT&T Pension Fund, and informed him that, “Emanating from his letter of October, 11, 2000, he had met with representatives in late October 2000, and at that meeting, it was agreed that it would have been futile to continue discussions or make any decisions until the amount needed to be invested by the Government into the fund, so as to allow for the unification of plans for the benefit of past GTC employees who were in the employ of GT&T and for whom the Government is liable for the payment of pensions based on the terms of the purchase agreement between the Guyana Government and ATN, was ascertained.” According to the petition, Brassington, in a correspondence dated February 10, 2000, to Hebert, Secretary of the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance,  on the payment of pension benefit to former employees of GT&T stated that “employees will continue in employment with GT&T and their services will be treated as continuous and unbroken and other conditions of service will not be less favourable than which they enjoyed and that they were guaranteed employment with GT&T for a period of eighteen (18) months, subject, of course, to right of the management of dismiss or discharge them for cause.” To date the pensioners have not received their just benefits and as such called on the House to ensure that the former employees of the Guyana Telecommunication Corporation who continued in service with Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and retired, be paid their just and due pension in accordance with the Pensions Act as enshrined in the Constitution of Guyana. They also are calling on the Minister of Finance to state what is the reason preventing the responsible agency from effecting payment of the correct pension that is just and due to pensioners and “when the payment to the pensioners would be effected.”