Employers can no longer collect CLICO contributions from workers - Duncan

Employers can no longer collect CLICO contributions from workers – Duncan

May 02, 2009 News

Employers guilty of collecting money from workers under the supposition that they are still paying contributions to the Colonial Life Insurance Company (CLICO) will not escape the scrutiny of the unions that come under the Federation of Independence Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG) umbrella.
This notion was emphasised yesterday by FITUG President, Carvil Duncan, when he addressed a rally at the National Park.

Duncan made it clear, yesterday, that given the fact that it has been said in Parliament and published in the media that there is no doubt that the assets of CLICO will be liquidated, no further contributions can be paid to the fallen company.

“I want those employers who are still collecting workers’ money as contributions to CLICO to realise that we know and the time will come when the workers will demand that they either put them in a scheme that is reliable and good or they pay interest on the money they already have because they cannot use workers’ money to finance themselves.”
According to Duncan, it has been reported that employers have been falsely assuring workers that their contributions will be paid in full in a matter of months even as they continue to deduct monies in this regard.

“It is either they stop this altogether and find another scheme for the workers or else!” Duncan warned yesterday.
He alluded to the fact that there are already a number of issues plaguing the working class of today which also includes the CLICO situation.
CLICO, which is a branch of the now defunct CL Financial Empire, can be compared with the Stanford Group, according to Duncan.

“Those were heartless financiers who built empires without considering the importance of contingency plans through which reserves would have been in place and this failure to put in place contingency led to their collapse.
Workers must understand that local investments with CLICO had been sound. Take for instance the NIS where billions of workers dollars are laid away in social and retirement plans. The investment by the NIS with CLICO was necessary and sound.”

According to Duncan, the actuarial report presented in 2007 revealed the state of the scheme for the period 2001 to 2006 and pointed out that the outlay for beneficiaries of the NIS exceeded that of contributors.
It showed that the NIS had to be innovative in order to avoid the collapse of the scheme.
He explained that the Board of Directors of the NIS discerned that it was necessary to invest to save the scheme and had that investment not been made the NIS might have been relegated to the pages of history before the CLICO debacle.

“We have no problem with the NIS investing to improve its viability. It was a valid and sensible investment. Notwithstanding that it must be understood that the National Insurance Scheme was created to provide social and retirement benefits for workers when they need it most in their twilight years.”
Duncan further pointed to the fact that Government not only has a responsibility but an obligation to ensure that those benefits are fully protected and guaranteed, adding that FITUG expects no less from the administration and “we will be extremely disappointed if mechanisms to fulfil this obligation are not in place.”

GAWU President, Komal Chand, added though that so far it is reassuring to know Government has undertaken to closely track developments in the Company (CLICO) to ensure that policyholders and depositors’ are protected as was expressed in Resolution No. 82 and passed recently by the National Assembly.
“That the National Assembly endorses the statement by the government guaranteeing the savings, pensions, investment and insurances of all investors, depositors, policy holders and contributors of CLICO.”