Philipsburg:--- President of the Windward Island Teachers Union (WITU) and Vice President of the Windward Islands Chamber of Labour Unions (WICLU) Claire Elshot made a strong call to all pensioners who believe that they are being short-changed to contact the Unions or APS to rectify their status so that they can obtain all that is due to them. Elshot made the statements on Tuesday at WICLU's weekly press conference.
Elshot said that pensioners confirmed to the unions that they received the 3.2% Cost of Living Adjustments (COLA). The unionist further explained that persons receiving old age pension also received an increase but there needs to be more clarity on this issue. She said SZV would be applying a different calculation depending on the amount of years the person contributed to the pension fund. Elshot said there are persons who will see an increase but not the full amount that was announced. The WITU President said she is of the opinion that SZV should come out and give their clients a thorough explanation as to how they will calculate and apply the increase for pensioners. Pensioners who were receiving full pension prior to the increase (NAF 800 and over) will now get Naf. 1000.00 or 990 guilders because for some reason Naf. 10 is withheld.
Elshot has called on her members and persons who recently went on pension (5 years or less) to pay keen attention to the information she is providing. She said the allowances by means of pension or onderstand have been on the books so that persons who worked for 30 years or more will not go home empty handed. This fund she said was made available especially for those persons who were not registered in the former APNA. Elshot said that besides the SZV and APS pension there are persons who would get the allowances which would help to make up the full amount that is due to them. The allowances she said is 75% of what the person/ workers would have gotten if they were inscribed at APNA (pension fund) for the full amount of years. Civil servants will get 75% while other workers such as laborers would receive 50% of what they were supposed to have gotten from the pension fund.
Elshot said the lack of information from St. Maarten, awareness, and proper inscription was extremely faulty. The WITU president said this has been a problem for years now and because of that several workers who gave years of service lost their benefits. Elshot said a particular senior civil servant working for personnel affairs did not do their jobs properly and in an effort to cover up their incompetence they tried to get some workers whose paper work were not done or completed by the department to sign waivers on their rights. Elshot personally intervened in one case some years ago and regulated the issue for someone who had all their proof to show the amount of years that they worked. Elshot said when the corrections were made the bill for the years prior to the pension fund becoming mandatory was sent to the Government of St. Maarten. Negligence in government cost them already and it will continue to cost them if their workers do not do what is right for workers. "I went to Curacao myself and when I produced the person's file APNA representatives corrected the matter immediately because they saw the injustice that was being done to the worker who gave more than 30 years of service. I can remember the WITU and WICSU wanted to take a class suit against the Government of St. Maarten but former commissioner of personnel affairs Roy Marlin dealt with the matter and signed an agreement with APNA. This agreement was signed after the pension fund became compulsory on St. Maarten." Elshot said the pension fund became mandatory on January 1st, 1998. Elshot said persons who were working prior to 1998 and were not registered in the pension was given an opportunity to buy back their years. However, this affected several persons because the cost of buying back was too costly. She said during the period the pension fund became mandatory they agreed that two thirds of the buying back would have to be paid by the worker while the employer had to pay one third, this arrangement was to encourage the workers to buy back their years so that they could benefit from all the years of service they have given. Elshot further explained that even though these measures were put in place there were people who simply could not afford to buy back their years of service therefore they had to turn to the allowances. Elshot said that it was never intended for workers to be penalized because they refused or could not buy back their years of service. There are instances where the workers were not notified, they were not given information and there other instances that people found out about the buy-back option too late. "I want to make clear that there are laws on the books to protect the workers, however, these persons will receive much lower than if they had bought back their years into the pension fund." Workers who bought back their years will get 70% of their last salary but those persons need to have at least 35 years of service to benefit fully from the pension fund. Elshot made clear that the union will not subscribe to any sort of injustice to workers, she said one person who gave 40 years and two months of service to St. Maarten request for pension was denied.
The WITU leader appealed to pensioners who believe that they are being shortchanged to contact the union or APS so that they can regulate their paperwork in order to receive what is due to them." Elshot said just recently she got a case where someone's request was turned down and that should not have happened. She said the WITU is busy investigating to see the basis on which the person was denied pension.