…retirees form association to help speed up process

Some 35 retired employees of the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) who are still to receive their pensions are frustrated with the sloth with which their issue is being handled and have since formed a Pensioners Association to help push their cause.

Vice President of the Association, Kathy Fowler, on Wednesday last held a press conference to speak on the frustration that the retirees are facing even as they call on all relevant authorities to address the issue. Fowler was a nursing assistant when she retired from the M&CC in 2015, after having worked at the municipality for 21 years. She noted that there are other retirees in the Association who would have served as much as 33 to 35 years at the municipality, but are yet to receive their pensions.

“We’re now being formed because of the disrespect that has been meted out to pensioners by the administrators of the M&CC. We have given everything into this municipality and this is how we’re being treated at the end of the day,” Fowler lamented.

Fowler said the Association held two meetings with the current Mayor, Ubraj Narine, and other M&CC officials; however, they are still awaiting word on progress being made to get them their money. Nor are they getting any proper reasons as to why they are not being paid. Fowler said the meetings were held in January and February of this year. At the first meeting, aside from the Mayor, also present were the Deputy Mayor; chairman of the Finance Committee, Oscar Clarke; City Treasurer (ag), John Douglas; the Town Clerk (ag), Sharon Harry Munroe.

“After that [meeting], the Town Clerk (ag) promise to look into the issues and put things in place. But to date, nothing has been put in place since we had the meeting with the Mayor; to date nobody called us. Nobody had the courtesy to sit with us and acknowledge us,” Fowler noted.

Wendy Vickerie is also a member of the newly formed Pension Association. She noted that in addition to being owed her pension, she is also owed retroactive money that was not paid to her for the years 2015, 2016 and 2017 when she was still employed at City Hall. “It’s terrible, terrible. And I just keep running, all they’re saying is that [the documents] finish but they ain’t get no word to pay it out. It affecting me a great lot,” complained Wendy Vickerie, who retired from the M&CC last year.

When contacted on Wednesday, Mayor Narine confirmed that he met with a group of persons, however, he noted that in order for them to be recognised by the M&CC as an organization, he has to be furnished with a list of their members, a list of those on the executive, and with the association’s constitution.

He further noted that the technical aspect of their complaints is an issue that needs to be dealt with by the Town Clerk and City Treasurer.

Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday, Harry-Munroe said that the issue is being addressed. She noted that the City’s administration was expected to schedule a meeting with the pensioners shortly to put forward a payment proposal to them, while simultaneously meeting with the municipality’s insurance brokers to work out outstanding payments into the M&CC’s pension scheme.

Harry-Munroe said there are currently two unions querying pension matters on behalf of retired employees – the Guyana Labour Union and the Guyana Local Government Officers Union (GLGOU).

“I met with the Finance Committee with regards to outstanding payments to those persons. Emanating from that we would have met with the GLU and we are to have a meeting with the GLGOU… I’m looking to see how soon I can meet with them.”

At last year’s Commission of Inquiry (COI) into City Hall, Ewart Adams, a representative from the M&CC official insurance broker, testified that the municipality owed some $ $14.5 million on their pension policy which represented monies outstanding for the period February 2017 to October 2018. The amount represented an overall $24 million in insurance money owed to several insurance companies. The municipality’s pension plan is with the Guyana and Trinidad Mutual (GTM) Group of Insurance companies.

Notwithstanding the money not being paid to the insurance company, the municipality, over the years, had continued to diligently make deductions from the employees’ pay. Harry-Munroe said that since then the municipality has already begun meeting with their brokers and have paid over some money and continues to work with the brokers to see how the retirees can get their pensions.