Pension Reform is Coming; G.O.B. & Union to Discuss

Sharon Fraser

Those conditions include the need for a conversation on pension reform, an issue that P.S.U. President Dean Flowers says has been kicked down the road by multiple administrations. But, the unions agree it has to be addressed as it is unsustainable. A meeting is set for February fifteenth. So what is the new structure, and how will it impact public officers and teachers?

Sharon Fraser, President, A.P.S.S.M.

“Has been on the table for some time now and ti has to be addressed. We are not going to sit here and say that in fact we are not prepared to look at that or we have not been prepared to look at it, but it is a separate conversation and yes it is important because the truth of the matter is that there is one pie. People are living a little longer now, so it means that there is that burden that is placed on that one pie to satisfy everything; that one pie being the consolidated fund. So that we have been, by means of our past collective bargaining agreement and the way that the pension act is presently set up would have put ourselves in a position where and would have signed on at the entry into the public service to be able and entitled to a pension. We are not saying that it is not important to address it and maybe yes, it should have been addressed a long time ago, we have said okay so, let’s look at it. Of course, it would have to, by contractual means, be placed on those who are coming in as opposed to those who would have already signed on. And everywhere else, in other organizations, there have been contributory pensions that have set up. It is the way that it is being brought to us. I’ve sat in many meetings with IMF personnel who have spoken about pension reform. So it is not that we are dense or we are the ostrich with our heads in the sand that don’t understand that this conversation has to be had, but we need to be serious about it. We need to be able to say okay fine, let us meaningfully look at it. Let us look at the issue and how it is that we can help.”

Francis Fonseca

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Education

“Pension reform is on the table for discussion, but we have not come up with any proposal as yet so we haven’t tabled any proposal to the joint unions because we are not at that point yet. Once we have a proposal in place, of course we are going to table it for discussion with them. And again, we are going to approach it in a spirit of good faith and hopefully we can arise at some resolution. The bottom-line is that we need pension reform; there is absolutely no question about that. The current structure is unsustainable so we will have to have pension reform. The question is what model will that take, what structure will that take and when will it be implemented. Those are the discussions that we have to have.”