The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHEN Ben Brown went to the National Insurance Board to claim benefits recently, he was surprised and dismayed to learn that his employer, Fusion Superplex, allegedly had not paid the majority of his NIB contributions.

It was a “punch in the gut” for the 27-year-old father who was hoping for his case to be processed quickly so that he could receive financial assistance from NIB. Receiving the benefit was the only way he could possibly see his way through after the company placed him on unpaid leave due to economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Instead, Mr Brown said NIB told him assistance would be delayed as they would need to verify certain elements, including past contributions before he could receive any money.

Similarly, another employee said he resigned from the entertainment centre about two months ago and was told by NIB at the time that 75 percent of his contributions, taken from his salary, had never been paid. “They told me I could not get my monies,” he said.

This situation, according to another worker Gloria Greene, has left her immediate future uncertain. The names of both workers have been changed out of fear of retribution.

“This country is in a total lockdown for one and we’re not sure we’re even going to get the NIB funds that we’re owed because two weeks ago, NIB was not paid up,” she claimed. “So we’re not even sure if we’re going to get some type of relief from even NIB.”

None of the workers were told when they could receive money from NIB, they claimed.

Similar stories have been circulating since Fusion placed its 350 employees on unpaid leave nearly two weeks ago.

Then last week, another layer of bad news came when executives said they were facing a payroll deficiency and would be unable to satisfy salaries for this pay period.

However, workers were assured they would be paid outstanding salaries as soon as possible.

Yesterday, Fusion’s CEO Carlos Foulkes said the company’s NIB contributions have been delayed, citing paperwork issues, admitting the company was on a payment plan with NIB. He said this arrangement should be no reason for employees to be prevented from getting benefits from NIB.

He said: “We do have a delay in payments to NIB and as a result of that we have been put on a payment plan with NIB, something that was negotiated between the leadership of NIB and Showcase Entertainment Ltd, which is the parent company for Fusion Superplex.

“We have had no issues with the payments stopping persons from getting their benefits. We have recognised that there has been a delay in payments and as a result NIB has said ‘do this, do this, do this and pay this amount a month,’ we’ve been doing that.

“But that is unlikely to be the reason persons are being turned away from NIB. If they are being turned away from NIB, I am not saying that they aren’t, because what we told employees is if you have any difficulties with any claims come to the HR department and get some assistance. We deal with those issues on a case-by-case basis.

“The fact that Showcase Entertainment is delayed in its contributions is not any reason why NIB would turn away somebody seeking benefits because that has nothing to do with the employee. It’s a condition between NIB and our parent company.”

Mr Foulkes said to his knowledge, the issue has come down to NIB’s processing of C-10 forms. From Fusion’s end, the forms are being submitted on time, he insisted. However the CEO said there had been errors on the forms from time to time.

“The biggest issue is the processing of the C-10, which essentially is the documentation that we submitted on a daily basis, which says this is how many people we employ, this is how much we have deducted, this is what we have to pay into the NIB fund.

“Once we put that in, the employees’ files are updated as soon as NIB can get to it. Their internal operations are beyond us but we do know that there has been some delay in the updating of the C-10.”

Additionally he said delays may have come as a result of some workers filling out certain benefit forms with the wrong employee name or being challenged by internet capability now that the process is web-based. Others had expected to receive NIB assistance but had not met the requirement of having contributed into the fund for 52 weeks, he said.

Confirming the matter was on NIB’s radar, National Insurance Minister Brensil Rolle said employees had every right to be concerned.

“We are addressing it now,” Mr Rolle said when he was contacted. “We are actively speaking with several big businesses and Fusion is one of them. This is with a view to addressing some of the critical issues.

“We have been in contact with Fusion to address the issues.”

NIB Director Nicola Virgill-Rolle told this newspaper she could not speak specifically to any particular firm. However, she outlined how NIB deals with instances where contributions have not been paid on time.

The board does not penalise employees for employers’ failures to pay contributions, she said.

“Our policy is that all persons who are eligible and meet the requirements for their benefits can be paid,” Mrs Virgill-Rolle said. “If there is ever a particular situation, a case of arrears or non payment, we have a policy whereas we don’t penalise the worker for that.

“It may delay the process because we have to confirm the C-10s; the contribution statements with employers individually and this is something that happens on a normal basis. And so we undertake that process to ensure that the persons did work there and do that process.

“It may delay, but we don’t disqualify once we can confirm that you have indeed worked at a particular location we will then seek to confirm that with the employer.”

She also said: “For a policy where there may be arrears we will check the system and have our inspectorate also go out to confirm the information from the employer.”

Just last year, NIB’s minister warned that non-compliant employers failing to pay workers’ contributions may be running out of time to continue this practice.

At the time he said employers who do not pay on behalf of their workers owed the board between $14m to $17m.