TUC worried over low lump-sum payment to workers

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has expressed worry over the delay in paying pension lump sum top-ups to some workers who retired in 2020 under the three-tier pension scheme.

According to the TUC, not only is the lump-sum low, but the year-long delay in payment and no correction of anomalies detected in what they describe as ‘inferior lump-sum benefits’ was disturbing to workers.

The said anomalies, the union says, started in 2021, and their members now stand a high risk of losing their pension not only this year but up to 2025.

The situation, the TUC has said, is causing severe hardships for retirees.

The union has also noted that last year’s retirees received lower pension lump-sum ben thaned to what they would have received under the old pension scheme – PNDCL 247.

The General Secretary of TUC, Dr Anthony Yaw Baah, raised these concerns in a statement issued on Monday, July 5, 2021, after a TUC general council meeting at Kasoa in the Central Region.

“Government has agreed to top-up the lump-sum benefits of these retirees. It is close to a year since government committed itself to pay the top-up, but they are yet to receive their lump-sum top-up,” he said.

“Workers who are retiring in 2021 and probably those who will retire between 2022 and 2025 may face the same challenge of inferior lump sums. All these retirees deserve lump-sum top-up,” Dr Baah added.

He was of the view that the TUC should have participated in the introduction of the three-tier pension scheme to ensure improvement in the lump-sum payment to retirees.

Against this backdrop, Dr Baah believes “the reforms should be reversed, and all workers should return to the SSNIT scheme for enhanced pension benefits” if the problems seem too huge to overcome.

“We call for a stakeholder forum on pensions. We foresee challenges ahead for pensioners, given the dire economic situation. We need to find a sustainable way out of the pension debacle,” the TUC boss added.

Dr Yaw Baah, however, assured retirees that TUC would continue to work with its social partners to ensure that the challenges in the pensions sector are dealt with.

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COVID-19 vaccination

Touching on the COVID-19 vaccination in the country, the General Secretary of the union said they were worried about the slow pace at which the country was vaccinating its citizenry.

He said that the union recognises the challenges associated with getting the vaccines into the country, but the 300,000 Ghanaians that have been vaccinated amidst the scare of the Delta variant was not enough.

The union, therefore, urged the government not to relent on getting the vaccines to vaccinate the required threshold.

“It is our fervent hope that in the spirit of social partnership, we will deal with challenges in the pensions sector and work together to ramp up the COVID-19 vaccination programme,” he noted.

Issues of insecurity

With the recent robbery attacks and clashes being witnessed in parts of the country, the union implored the government to institute pragmatic measures to douse the ensuing tension.

The union noted that when such issues are dealt with, it would help accelerate the economic recovery agenda.

TUC pledged to play its part to ensure peace and stability in the country.