CWU demands reimbursement for TSTT workers

Yesterday, a small group of CWU members and workers staged a lunchtime picket demonstration, at the corner of Edward Street and Independence Square, Port-of- Spain, calling on the management committee to meet and clarify the issue before payment could be made.

Speaking to reporters, CWU Secretary General Joseph Remy said employees of the former telephone company who would have been contributing 6.5 percent of their monthly salary toward the pension fund plan, and in the TSTT environment when that plan came into being the company, agreed that the contribution should be five percent.

Remy said at present they have two pension fund plans, one that came from the former telephone company which is the TELCO Pension Fund Plan, and the other plan which started when the company merged in 1991, called the TSTT Pension Fund Plan.

“They had employees in the same company doing the same work paying different contributions towards a pension that would have been calculated on the same basis which is on the basis of their final salary and the rules of pension. We raised an issue with that and it was subsequently agreed that the contribution should be five percent across the board.” He continued, “For 11 years between 1995 and 2006 hundreds of former telephone employees would have been contributing 6.5 per cent when they should have been paying five percent.” He said the actuaries eventually recommended in one of the actual reports that it is not a problem to have the 1.5 percent reimbursed for the 11 years that those who would have contributed more than they were supposed to.

Remy said after numerous efforts to have the issue addressed they have not had any agreement by the company to have this 1.5 percent reimbursed.

“What we have seen is that scores of pensioners have died without getting their just due and we are saying to the company that is sacrilegious. You cannot put people, particularly retirees on fixed income, through that process.”