Tonight, public officers are preparing for their 101st Annual General Meeting set to take place in the Corozal district.
But the backdrop to the meeting is the rumor that government is pushing through with its pension reform proposal this year. It proposes to phase out non - contributory pensions and eventually raise the retirement age.
And while that is the rumor - today the PSU president said there is no date for implementation finalized or agreed upon:
Dean Flowers, President, PSU
"I know the government had expressed its desire to have this effected on the first of July, I can tell you that the joint unions have written to the government, um, but we did not or have not received a response, as it relates to some information, data that we had requested to assist us in arriving at a position where the pension reform exercise is concerned, also, I was grateful enough to be able to attend the public service 25 years award ceremony on Wednesday and I can tell you that while the Minister of public service did touch on the topic, he did not touch on an implementation date or he did not go into any specifics as it relates to the rate of contribution, I think that it is public information what the IMF has recommended specifically for public officers and that is, of course, a.025 decimal point as the starting rate on your gross salary and that is supposed to increase incrementally over 16 years to four per cent. That would be, um, what they are proposing, I don't know if that is the government's final position. From a Union standpoint there is much more to the equation, um, we have to look at several variables including those public officers who are already eligible for a pension so they would have already fulfilled their 15 years, the pension act protects those public officers and the constitution of Belize protects those public officers and so it's not an easy fix, it will require a constitutional amendment."
"The mortality rate is an argument that is ongoing as well as a part of this conversation. If the retirement was to be extended to 60 or 65 again those would have to come with certain options for people to be able to opt-out before 65 as currently is the case whereby you can opt-out after 50 and before 55."
The PSU's AGM takes place on Saturday June 24th at the Escuela Secundaria Mexico Escolar where members are expected to vote on their next President, Second Vice President, Secretary General and many more.
