The Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes, has intensified its advocacy for an appropriate retirement package for pensioners under the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT).
It has for the second time, scheduled a strike over demands of an increment in pension benefits for its members.
According to the group, current retirees are also not being paid their past credits by SSNIT.
The Chairman of the Forum, Isaac Bampoe Addo, addressing the media on Tuesday, October 20, 2020, said, “The patience of the Forum has indeed been tested to the full. Therefore, the Forum has decided to revisit its action and has informed the National Labour Commission, the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, the Ministry of Finance on Friday, October 16, 2020, that our teaming members from the Ghana Education Service, health sector, the Judicial Service as well as the Civil Service and Local Government Service to commence its solidarity strike on October 28, 2020.”
“We call on the general public to support our action to bring home the sordid plights of our retirees as regards the past credit paid to them by SSNIT. These senior citizens should not be condemned to their fate and should not be caused to suffer for no fault of theirs,” he stated.
The problem
Pensioners are often burdened with the load of paying hospital bills, finding a permanent place of abode, as well as ensuring that one has enough to meet daily expenditure on food and other needs.
Many a time, the hardship of pensioners is told; but resolving the situation seems far from over especially for those who work in the public sector.
For many years, pensioners retiring from the public sector have asked the managers of the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) to modify their operations to improve their living conditions.
In this regard, the Forum for Public Sector Registered Pension Schemes, has for several months now, been fighting for an increment in pension benefits by SSNIT but to no avail.
According to the group, SSNIT is not complying with the directives of the National Pensions Act, 2008 (Act 766 as amended), and the National Pensions Regulatory Authority for Tier 2 and Tier 3 schemes.
Despite the calls for better pension earnings structured in a three-tier pension scheme, they also claim that SSNIT has not transferred the past credits in its custody to the respective approved trusts to manage their tier two funds.
But for an invitation from the National Labour Commission to appear before it in June this year, the workers would have laid down their tools in the same month.
The meeting was however postponed to September due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Forum has since not had solutions to their problems, hence their decision to strike on October 28.
The membership of the Forum comprises associations such as the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, the Ghana Medical Association, Judicial Services Staff Association of Ghana, the Ghana National Association of Teachers, and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana.
