Treasury Secy. couldn’t answer our simple pension query – Inter Company Employees Union Chief

Thursday, 28 April 2011 00:15 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Inter Company Employees Union (ICEU) President Wasantha Samarasinghe who is also a member of the tripartite National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) alleged yesterday that Treasury Secretary Dr. P.B. Jayasundera failed to answer a simply query on the proposed private sector pension scheme.

Samarasinghe during the Tuesday’s special meeting between NLAC, Labour Minister Gamini Lokuge and Finance Ministry officials had asked what would be the pension of a person aged 53 now entering the proposed scheme. There was no clear and quick answer from Treasury Boss despite Minister Lokuge convening the special meeting on the request of NLAC members since it was alleged that a major portion of the draft Bill had inputs from the Finance Ministry.

The ICEU Chief regretted the irresponsive stance of the Finance Ministry as the officials were invited to clarify concerns of the NLAC.

Samarasinghe alleged that the original Bill doesn’t have the features of a proper pension programme rather a fixed deposit scheme. He also claimed that proper financial analysis as well as an actuarial assessment hadn’t been done prior to finalising the scheme. In that context he alleged that if the scheme had gone unopposed it would have been a case of robbing both, the employees and employers.

However ICEU Chief acknowledged that Treasury Secretary at Tuesday’s meeting agreed to consider recommendations from NLAC-represented trade unions and private sector groups before coming up with a fresh Bill.