PM gets petition on TEXTEL’s pensions issue

Prime Minister Patrick Manning promised to give the TEXTEL Pension Plan Fund issue immediate attention when a petition, signed by more than half the 500-plus members for Government’s assistance in solving a dispute between TEXTEL pensioners and TSTT, was handed over to him at Whitehall, yesterday. Advisor to the Prime Minister Herbert Atwell who received the petition on behalf of Manning said that the PM would “look at it” at his earliest convenience, Communication Workers’ Union Secretary General, Lyle Townsend told Newsday. The signatories are former members of the TEXTEL Employees Pension Fund Plan and current employees of TSTT. They are requesting Government intervention in resolving a “long outstanding issue” concerning the benefits due to the Plan’s members. The hand over of the petition followed a staged protest by “aggrieved” pensioners outside Whitehall, who, according to the petition have been “forced” to take such action.

“We believe that it is necessary at this time for us to demand the winding up of the Plan in accordance with Section 34.2 of the rules, that is equitable distribution of the assets solely to the former members,” the petition said. According to Communication Workers’ Union (CWU) Secretary General Lyle Townsend who headed the demonstration, it is necessary for the Government to become involved since, “the Government represent the people.” He told Newsday: “We are going to the limit. Companies who run pension plans in this country have been pilfering from the workers. Trustees are supposed to be securing the interest of the workers, but it seems to be a free-for-all and plunder. “We think it is time the Government step in because it involves a State enterprise,” said Townsend. He said the issue is a national one and that the CWU and TEXTEL pensioners were acting on behalf of “all people of the country who contribute to a pension plan.”

The TEXTEL Pension Plan was absorbed by TSTT when the Trinidad and Tobago External Telecommunications Company Limited (TEXTEL) became defunct. TEXTEL pensioners are demanding that the surplus of $300M owing them be distributed to its beneficiaries. “TSTT feels they should keep the surplus but we disagree. They are going contrary to the rules of the plan and we consider this to be illegal. We took it to the High Court and the Court of Appeal. The whole thing was a contrivance to rob people of their just due,” lamented former personnel manager of TEXTEL, Eugene Lopez.