ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC—The Grenada government says it will introduce legislation to create a transferable pension scheme for people contracted to work as public servants or in public service positions.
Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, speaking at a town hall meeting, said approximately 3,000 contract employees and other trainees in the public service do not have a government pension, and they face the Government of retiring without a pension if changes are not made to the current situation.
The ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC) is holding a series of town hall meetings to mark the second anniversary of its June 2022 general election victory.
“We have committed that come the first of October, we will be going to the Parliament to enact legislation to create a new pension scheme for these workers to ensure that they have the opportunity to have a pension,” Mitchell told the meeting on Monday night.
“We cannot continue in a situation where you have 3,000 people who don’t have pensions because when they retire, what will happen to them? So, we must create a system that will allow them to get a pension,” said the Prime Minister.
However, the National Insurance Scheme law mandates that all employees contribute to NIS to ensure that a pension is paid to them at the end of the month after retirement.
However, Prime Minister Mitchell explained that the new pension scheme for contracted public officers would be one in which each contracted employee, and the Government contributes. “We are saying anyone the government hires after that has to come on to the pension system where they contribute, the government contributes, and when you retire, you can have your contribution,” he said.
“If you move from the government to the private sector, you could take your pension with you; if you want to exit the government service, you can get the contributions you have made,” the Prime Minister told the meeting.
“The cabinet has approved the pension policy framework, the consultant has done extensive work, we have submitted this to the attorney general’s chambers, we are waiting on the draftsmen and women there to provide the draft legislation to us,” he said, adding that the Government has already Government the sum to pay to the pension for the last quarter of 2024.
Prime Minister Mitchell said that once the new pension scheme goes into effect, the distinction between contract-for-services and contract-in-service workers will be abolished because they are all government employees.
Within the Government, only established workers serving the state for 27 years are entitled to receive a pension from the Government.
However, the Government’s new pension scheme will not affect established workers whose pensions are established by the constitution.
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