Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 14/Jan 04:59

When retirement becomes punishment

THE EDITOR: Much has been said about fiscal discipline and pension reform, but little attention has been paid to a quiet injustice unfolding among some of the lowest-paid public servants in our country. Since 1994, daily-rated workers in municipal corporations were required to retire at age 60, five years earlier than many other public officers. At the time workers were assured that alternative pension arrangements would be addressed. That commitment was acknowledged again in the 2020 national budget, when provision for a pension for daily-rated employees was publicly announced. To date, it remains unimplemented. For these workers, the national insurance pension at age 60 became the only bridge between retirement and the senior citizens’ grant at age 65. Any move to push NIS access to 65 therefore creates a five-year income gap for people who are legally barred from working beyond 60. What makes this harder to accept is the inequality within the system itself. Employees of the Port of Spain and San Fernando City Corporations retire at age 65, while their counterparts in regional corporations must leave at 60, despite performing comparable functions. But the most painful issue is not just retirement age. It is the incorrect calculation of terminal benefits. In one typical case – shared without name or identifiers – a worker retired after 42 years of service, only to discover that his gratuity was calculated at a lower job classification than the one he actually held at retirement. The difference amounted to thousands of dollars. Despite written appeals, supporting documents, and requests for review, the calculation stood. The retiree lost not just income, but dignity. All of this is happening in a country where chairmen, councillors, MPs and senior public officers have received salary and pension improvements, often justified as necessary to attract competence. No one begrudges fair compensation, but fairness must apply at the bottom as well as the top. If the retirement age was reduced, a pension should have followed. If errors were made in benefit calculations, they should be corrected. And if appeals are lodged, they deserve timely, reasoned responses. This is not a call for confrontation. It is a call for administrative fairness, empathy, and accountability. Ministries have legal and technical expertise. Municipal corporations have records. What retirees are asking for is simple: to be heard, to be treated fairly, and to live their final years with dignity. How an organisation treats its elderly workers says much about its values. We can – and must – do better. At present, too many are being quietly failed. MOTILAL RAMSINGH via e-mail The post When retirement becomes punishment appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.