ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – The Grenada Trades Union Council (GTUC) is objecting to how the Dickon Mitchell administration appointed the employee representative to the National Insurance Scheme Investment Committee (NIS).
GTUC president Andre Lewis, the senator representing the labor movement in the Upper House, says a rep was chosen without the input of the labor movement.
“From the establishment of the NIS, the employee representative on the Investment Committee was always nominated by us, the Council, but this government has reconstituted the Committee without labor nominating its representative to the Committee,” said Lewis, who sees the move by the administration as a blatant violation and disregard of section 18 of the NIS Act.
“We have written to the minister responsible for the National Insurance Scheme pointing out our observation, and we are still waiting.”
The Act states that there shall be, for this Act, an Investment Committee, which shall consist of five members to be appointed by the Minister.
The members will be an officer of the Ministry of Finance nominated by the Minister of Finance, which officer shall be appointed chairperson; a member of the Board other than the Director; two other members who appear to the Minister to be experienced in finance, accountancy, business administration, industrial relations or some other related subject, one of whom shall represent employers and the other who shall represent the employees; and the Director.
The current Investment Committee members are Mike Sylvester, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, who is the Chairman; Osbert Hood and Musa Jasat, representing employers; Sheena Regis representing employees; and Dorsett Cromwell, NIS Director.
“Here we have the law explaining who shall be on the Investment Committee, but right now, the reconstituted Committee as appointed by the Government does not include a representative from labor to represent employees because the Council did not nominate anyone, and so no one can claim to be representing employees on the Investment Committee,” he said.
“As you can see, the law said it shall represent employees, but the organization representing workers or employees was not allowed to represent them on the Committee. This is the first time, and we are concerned about that. It’s a violation of the law, which did not say may. It said shall,” Lewis said.
The Investment Committee, according to the Act, shall have the power to give from time to time general or specific directions to the Director, subject to the concurrence of the Board, on the investment of monies in the Fund which are surplus to current needs. The Director shall give the Investment Committee any information necessary to discharge their functions properly.
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