Has the Corriverton Town Council robbed this pensioner?

Aug 04, 2016 News

Dear Editor;
I would like to bring to your attention a matter that has been bothering me for two years. I am a retired employee of the Corriverton Town Council. I was employed there from 2002 to 2014 as a clerical assistant. I worked for eleven years, ten months (11 years, 10 months).
My pension at first was six thousand four hundred sixty one dollars ($6461) per month; I now receive seven thousand three hundred thirty two dollars ($7332). This pension was calculated based on a formula (prescribed by the then Ministry of Local Government) that is being used to calculate pensions for employees who are entitled to same.
However, I would like to bring to your attention pensions received by two other retired employees of the council. These two pensioners retired in July 2005 and April 2007 respectively and received, according to the council’s records, approximately twelve thousand dollars ($12 000) and eleven thousand dollars ($11 000) as their first pension although theirs were calculated with the same formula as mine.
I would also like to highlight that their salaries were lower than mine when they left the council. My last salary was thirty six thousand four hundred dollars ($36 400) and their salaries were approximately thirty one thousand dollars ($ 31 000) and twenty nine thousand dollars ($29 000) respectively.
I have been pursuing this matter since 2014 without any success. Before retiring I had calculated my pension so I had a fair idea of what I would be receiving. However, I was informed that the council had received a circular instructing them that when a retired employee’s pension is low it should be taken to a minimum level. This was done for the two aforementioned employees but not for me.
What is puzzling is that when the first pensions of these two pensioners were brought to the town clerk’s attention, he claimed that he had no knowledge of a circular or of them being paid those amounts although he would have held positions of senior finance clerk and municipal treasurer during those periods.
I have met with all the relevant authorities including the Honourable Minister of Communities but to no avail, officials there maintained that they work with the formula used to calculate the pension. The employee who retired in 2005 was supposed to have received six thousand two hundred eight dollars ($6208) per month but according to the council’s records, she is now receiving approximately fourteen thousand dollars and this is because the first pension being twelve thousand dollars ($12 000) and salary increases during the years (when the council’s employees received an increase in salary, pensioners were entitled to same at that time.)
I would be grateful if you can publish my letter in your newspaper and assist me to make this issue public knowledge so that the relevant authorities or anyone who reads my letter could shed some light as to what is the correct pension for retired employees of municipalities like me. In my opinion I am being cheated and treated unjustly and I am ashamed to let people know what my pension is. However, I am tired of all the running around and I feel I should be compensated correctly for the years of service I rendered to the Corriverton Town Council.
Rebecca S. Ramaldo
Line Path B, Skeldon

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