A Pension fund for all workers

Aug 31, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Policymakers should think of some kind of social security benefits for retirees who were not employed by the State. What retirees get is below the minimum daily or monthly wage. There are no social welfare schemes for the aged and poor other than old-age pension payments that are below minimum wage.

Little attention is placed on old-age, poor individuals or families with no able-bodied earners in their household. There is also a need for some kind of unemployment insurance and health care as in the developed countries paid for from contributions by employers. The Guyana Constitution itself also speaks of the population being entitled to certain rights and benefits. But they have not been actionable on guaranteed handouts.

Social security welfare benefits (pension, health insurance, and the like) can be availed if the State (government) makes it possible for workers to join a pension fund and for the government to guarantee unemployment benefits for a fixed period in the event of loss of job not due to reasons of the worker. The country needs significant social protection for workers.

Over half of the salaried workforce does not receive a pension to provide for their means after retirement. The disorganised sector workers (taxi workers, short-term labourers, farmers, infrastructure workers, construction workers, etc.) have no benefits in their old age and experience extreme difficulty in providing for daily survival, unlike their Diaspora brethren in North America and Europe. The State provides a ‘lil thing’ but it can hardly meet basic needs for a week. The amount of government handouts is a pittance when compared to what is required for minimum survival.

As it is, those who worked for the State (regular salaried companies) are in a better position than those who worked in the private sector in terms of social security. Those who worked for the State and a few private companies receive a guaranteed lifetime pension. The regular pension benefit is in addition to old age pension and NIS (if enough contributions were met). State employees also get health care coverage which is not available to those who labour in the private sector like farmers, fisher folks, lumberjacks, etc. Those who laboured on farms including at GuySuCo (except for management) growing rice and other produce and in forestry do not receive a guaranteed pension after retirement and have no medical coverage; they depend on old age pension and NIS (if they qualify – most farm workers don’t receive NIS) and their meager savings to provide for food and health care; it could never meet their needs.

In Guyana, unlike in several other developing countries like Trinidad and Barbados, for example, private employees have virtually no access to a provident fund, pension, health care, and disability insurance to meet basic needs. The poor, some half of the population, and the poorest (some quarter of the population, including retirees) who scour for daily work or labour below the minimum wage have no access to any benefits, no social welfare benefit other than old age payments. Our South American partners like Brazil and Argentina, among others, have pension plans — contribution-based and with matching funding from the companies where they labour. Such a system helps to contribute to income loss for a worker (and his family) from retirement or loss of job due to an accident, a disability, death of a breadwinner, illness/medical treatment (hospitalization), the birth of a child, the time needed to care for loving ones, or any event that leads to time away from work, family burdens, or the prospect of unemployment, etc.

The country needs some kind of employer and employee contribution system to guarantee social welfare for all workers who are contributors as in the developed countries where the Diaspora is settled. Foreign companies should be required to provide some kind of pension scheme for local workers; they do the same for workers in North America and Europe and expatriates employed in Guyana. They should not be exempted from doing so in Guyana.

There should be some kind of pension system – mandatory or optional. The collection (amalgamation or aggregation) of the funds provides a significant amount for investment – loans to the government for an interest that is competitive with institutionalized borrowers as an example or can be used in various other investments to generate a healthy return to pay retirees a decent pension. This system was introduced in Singapore in the 197Os (becoming mandatory for all workers) resulting in large pension payments monthly after retirement. In developed countries, pension is optional but must (by law) be offered to workers. Companies also contribute to the pension in addition to paying for the health care of their former staff. Those Guyanese who join a pension system receive health benefits like free dental and medical care and a decent pension sum that covers their monthly expenses and from which they also save to make an annual trip to their former homeland.

In developed countries, one receives multiple sources of payments after retirement – a guaranteed pension fund and welfare payments (including government pension) from the state in addition to health benefits; sources of ample income and benefits for old age are guaranteed to meet minimum needs and beyond. A similar system is needed in Guyana especially since the economy is transitioning from agriculture to energy.

It is time that our policymakers begin to develop a pension and social security system like that in the USA or Canada where a worker can obtain at least two forms of retirement benefits – pension and government social security in addition to NIS and health care. Guyana should aspire to provide social security to all of its workforce, in a manner that is feasible.

Yours faithfully,

Vishnu Bisram

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• Farmers, infrastructure workers, labourers, policymakers, Vishnu Bisram

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