Cemetery keeper sues NIB for full pension

She is contending that the NIB refuses to do so, simply because her employer did not deduct NIS dues on her behalf for a period of time.

Baby Pathay, 74, of Penal, was granted leave by Justice Carol Gobin, in a judicial review application she filed in which she contended that she was the keeper for the Batchyia Village cemetery for 21 years from 1970 to 1991. The Siparia Regional Corporation was her employer who paid her salary, and, deducted NIS dues.

Pathay alleged in her lawsuit, filed by attorney Sunil Gosine, instructed by attorney Imran Khan, that the NIB seemed to have disregarded her employment, continuous as it was, between June 1982 and June 1991.

Pathay realised this when she queried with the NIB, but was informed that no NIS contributions were made for her between the period 1982 to 1991.

As a result, the lawsuit stated, the NIB could have only paid her a reduced pension because she only chalked up a contribution of 550 payments and not the 473 weeks which would have seen her making 750 NIS contributions.

But Pathay submitted to the NIB a letter of confirmation which officially stated that her period of employment was from July 1, 1970, to December 1990. Legally, she was therefore engaged in insurable employment for the entire period with the same employer - Siparia Regional Corporation.

Pathay, however, was denied her full pension and instead, was paid a Pro Rata pension based on 530 weeks. Attorneys Gosine and Khan have argued before Gobin, that an employee/ employer relationship existed, but it appears that because no contributions were submitted by Pathay’s employer towards her NIS total contribution, rendered her status as an unemployed person and someone deemed not insurable by the NIB.