IF YOU ARE a young person with children to support and bills to pay, it would be bad news to find out that you are going to be laid off during a recession.
But it would be devastating to discover that you are entitled to a payment for past services, which would be delayed till you reach 60 years of age or sooner die. This is the nightmarish scenario that confronts many public officers who have been laid off or are about to be laid off.
Before I proceed, it would be useful to note that not everyone who works for the Government is a public officer. I am referring to public officers in the strictest sense which is defined in the Public Service Act as the holder of any public office and includes any person appointed to act in that office. Put simply, I am referring to any person who is employed by the Personnel Administration Division for the service commissions except the Director of Public Prosecutions, Auditor General and judges.
Many private sector employees must now be thanking their lucky stars that they were unsuccessful when they applied for jobs in the Public Service. They are secure in the knowledge that they would be entitled to severance pay, in the event of redundancy or compensation if they lose their jobs through no fault of their own.
By now all right-thinking people should be wondering why public officers are suffering such disadvantage when compared to private sector workers. The truth is that it has not always been the case. As a matter of fact, public officers enjoyed far superior terms and conditions until April 3, 2009. That is when the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) confirmed what I believe to be an erroneous statement of the Court of Appeal. The CCJ stated at paragraph 36 of the Winton Campbell judgement:
“It appears from section 13(3) of the Pensions Act at [26], as duly interpreted by the Court of Appeal, that payment of a pension is suspended until the age of sixty is attained unless the Governor-General considers that a case of permanent incapacity has been established. We have, however, been informed by counsel for the Respondent that, until the Court of Appeal decision, the practice had been to pay pensions immediately upon retirement from office and the Appellant had been a beneficiary of this practice. Such counsel’s understanding was that persons in receipt of such pensions would continue to receive them, but that persons retiring after the Court of Appeal decision would not receive their pensions till attaining the age of 60 years.”
In order to understand the genesis of this matter, we must go back to the noble intentions of the Rt Hon. Errol Barrow, Prime Minister, when he piloted an amendment to the Pensions Act in 1975. Prior to that amendment of July 22, 1975, public officers who resigned from the Civil Service before retirement age to seek greener pastures would have lost all entitlements to pensions. He felt that was unfair and brought the amendment which allowed civil servants, who had ten or more years’ service, to resign and have their pensions stored until they reach retirement age. In his speech to the House of Assembly, he is reported at page 5254 of Hansard as having said:
“In order to get a pension you should have done under the old legislation 10 years’ service. That means you can join the Service at the age of 40 and retire at 50 and get a pension. If you join the Service at the age of 18 and go on until you are 49, you would have done 31 years’ service and under the existing legislation you would not be entitled to a pension because you had not attained the age. This is one of the anomalies which I have drawn to the attention of this Chamber on previous occasions, but it is our policy and I have expressed here before that there should be a lot more flexibility in entry and exit into and out of the Barbados Government Service.”
He went on to say: “The main purpose of the amendments would be to make it possible for a person who is a professional or any other officer to come into the Service, do a certain amount of time and go out and get experience in the private sector, and it will also be possible for the Government to recruit people directly from the private sector who will come into the service and work for a number of years, and they do not have to wait until they are 50 years of age before they retire, but if they retire before the age of 50 and go to work in the private sector they will wait until the age of 55 for a pension.”
The amendment was only intended to store the pensions of persons who voluntarily resigned from the Public Service, before they reached retirement age and, who went on to work elsewhere. It should be noted that in 1975 persons had the option to retire early at age 55 and with permission at 50, but retirement age went up to 65 with the option of early retirement at 60 on July 15, 1985. That is why the judgement speaks to age 60.
That Barrow amendment was intended for good but his party is now using a misinterpretation to wreak havoc in the lives of defenceless public workers. Defenceless because the unions that are supposed to be protecting the workers’ rights have apparently gone asleep at the wheel.
Without any intention of being arrogant, I wish to refer to an article that I wrote in the NATION of May 13, 2009. I said then: “Every public officer in Barbados should be horrified by the CCJ’s interpretation of the section of the Pensions Act. It is so patently absurd that its potential effects would be too disastrous to contemplate. In these harsh economic times, the Government now has a tool to help reduce the public service wage bill. All it has to do is abolish the post of young public officers and let them wait until age 60 or sooner die to receive their benefits”.
Government apparently believes that it can now abolish posts in the Public Service left, right and centre with impunity. What it is inflicting on public workers is not the type of measures that is expected of a democratically-elected government.
This is what you would expect from a totalitarian regime that does not depend on the popular vote. But then again the members of the governing party have been elected to two parliamentary terms, which qualifies them for their lucrative pensions at age 50.
Governments have been known to fall before the end of the parliamentary term as a result of people’s pressure. I say no more for now.
• Caswell Franklyn is a trade unionist and social commentator.
Email caswellf@hotmail.com.