The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Trade union and private sector executives yesterday agreed on the need for mandatory pension legislation, but remained split on the timing given the economy’s need to recover from COVID-19.

Obie Ferguson, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) president, pushed for a National Pension Act to enable workers to save for retirement: “The way we’ve functioned in the Bahamas today, the workers of the unions are not a part of their respective pensions,” he added. “We want to make sure that we consolidate all of the pensions that affect workers.”

The call for a National Pension Act was unveiled as a part of a wider agenda that trade unions are collectively pushing ahead of the upcoming general election, as they seek to use the number of votes they represent to influence the political parties to adopt at least some of their plans.

Peter Goudie, the Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers Confederation’s (BCCEC) labour division chief, told Tribune Business he supported such an Act having been involved in drafting similar legislation under the last Christie administration between 2012 and 2017.

He said: “I’m in favour of a National Pension Act. This is already on the agenda of the National Tripartite Council.” He warned, though, that the timing was not right for businesses and employers strugglingt to rebound from COVID-19, saying: “I don’t think right now is any time to bring in anything that’s going to cost anybody.

“I have a National Pension Act. We made that up a long time ago. There was a pensions task force, and there were three of us that did most of the work on it. It was myself, Larry Gibson and another prominent lawyer.”

Mr Goudie said if Mr Ferguson was serious about a National Pension Act then they can work together and “dust off” the one that was drafted under the previous PLP administration.

The last attempt at legislation saw the Christie administration bring the Employees’ Pension Fund Protection Bill 2012 to parliament in early 2013. However, it was never passed or enacted into law.

Mr Ferguson. meanwhile, added that when workers need assistance they should be able to access a fund. He said: “Those persons who are receiving what we call a stipend are not trade union leaders. They are not trade union leaders; they are employees.

“Some of these pension funds give a stipend of $25,000 a year, $10,000 a year, $15,000 a year, and all we are doing is getting people to join the union to pay more money to the fund when we have no say in how that fund is managed. So we want a National Pension Fund, which will involve the workers of these unions and the representatives of the workers on those types of funds.”