PUBLIC SECTOR PENSION CONTRIBUTION TO BE PHASED IN

A proposal by the Jamaican Government to phase-in the five per cent pension contribution by public sector workers, effective April 1, has been welcomed by the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU).

Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced the new arrangement on Wednesday as he opened the debate on two pension bills in the House of Representatives.

He said the proposal will ease the hardships that government-paid workers would have face if the five percent contribution had been implemented all at once.

“In our discussions with Minister (Ruddy) Spencer, he had intimated that the government was prepared to examine our proposal for a phase-in and in fact made a proposal as to how it could be phased-in, and we had actually committed to meet with our members,” JCTU President Helene Davis Whyte says.

The proposal will be discussed at the upcoming board meeting of the Confederation, she added.