Office Attendants should be made pensionable

Editor: Pension is very important when one retires. The non contributory pension comes in very handy for many retired persons. However, while it is commendable that increases have been given to civil servants and some other sectors, it has been quite awhile that there has not been an increase in this area. If my memory serves me right, the last increase was some eight years ago. I am therefore recommending that some consideration be given to these persons.

On the topic of pension, some consideration must be given to office attendants to make them pensionable. Imagine an office attendant retiring at age 60 with no pension, but can not get any pension from the NIS until he/she is 65. How are those persons to survive for the five years? This to me is very much an injustice.

We all know that office attendants work very hard and play an important role in the ministries they work. I recommend that after serving 10 years they be made pensionable. This will give a cushion for survival when they retire, while they wait for their NIS benefit in five years time.

Come to think about it, politicians after serving nine years become pensionable. This is irrespective of how well they serve. Imagine a lazy politician and corrupt ones receiving pension after only 9 years in Parliament while the hard working office attendants serving over 20 years and has no pension at the end of retirement.

Similarly, those who are receiving a non contributory pension would have also given service of many years to the country, but have seen little increase. We know that pension is paid based on your last salary and also contribution made to the NIS. So a higher paid job would attract a large NIS contribution and salary. Thus the NIS pension would be good.

Since the NIS pension at age 65 is based on the person’s contribution, it means that the lower scale workers like the office attendant pension at age 65 would not be too attractive. Those workers because of their salary scale their gratuity would be small. Therefore it is all the more reason why office attendants having served 10yrs should be made pensionable.

I trust that this wrong would be made right. Let love reign along with Kindness.

Kennard King