Imbert: Better pension for firemen

The bill lets a fireman get a “pension, gratuity or other allowance” for a post in which he/she acted for three years before retirement.

It effects one aspect of a 2012 memorandum of agreement between the Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) and the Fire Service Association (Second Division) for 2008 to 2010.

Imbert said the bill follows similar past legislation to give higher superannuation benefits upon retirement for police, teachers, prison officers and local government staff.

Police benefited when in January 2004 the Pensions Act and Regulation 183 (A) of the Police Service Regulations were amended.

“On January 1, 2005, the Assisted Secondary School Teachers Pensions Act was amended to give effect to similar provisions. On January 1 2005 the Teachers Pension Act was amended to give effect to similar provisions.” He said similar provisions came by the amendment of the Prison Service Act in 2007 and the Municipal Corporations Pensions Act in 2004.

“So what we are doing here today is regularising a situation to allow a fire officer who has acted in a higher position for three years continuously prior to retirement to receive the benefits of the higher office.” “This matter was approved by Cabinet in 2012, and then the PP (People’s Partnership) government did nothing in 2012, in 2013, in 2014 and in 2015. It now falls to this Government to fix that lapse on the part of the PP government.” Naparima MP Rodney Charles hoped that the bill would not put some officers at a disadvantage.

“What happens if an officer acts for 10 years in a higher post but then reverts to his original post, compared to one acting for three years and then proceeding onto retirement?” He alluded that past service as an auxiliary fireman is not added into the calculation of a pension for someone who then became a regular service fireman.

Charles also feared that the CPO might not include in the definition of “three years continuous service” an officer who had acted for one year for one higher officer and another period for a second higher officer.

An officer who took a vacation within the three-year period might also find himself excluded, he said and called for the House to mull the whole bill rather than just one aspect.

Charles broadened the debate to call for a rise in the fines to those who impede firemen in their duties including municipal corporations failing to supply hydrants. He proposed revenue-earning by raising the fees charged by the Fire Service for services such as inspection of a plant, at present a mere $200.

Calling the Fire Service the neglected stepchild of the Ministry of National Security, Charles said officers feel neglected and unappreciated.

He said the Fire Services Association is saying no fire station in TT is OSHA compliant, including the headquarters at Wrightson Road, Port-of-Spain, even as he lamented the dilapidation of the Point Fortin Fire Station.

The House unanimously passed the bill. It resumes on Friday at 1.30 pm to do a private members motion on rising unemployment and continue the committee stage of Plea Bargaining Bill, plus another as yet unstated item.