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We Need More Money!

By Leaon Nash, The Jamaica Observer

Mandeville, Jamaica

July 20, 2004

There is a growing call from within the ranks of the island's retired teachers for the government to increase the pensions of educators who retired before 1995. They want to be paid at least $20,000 a month.

The average monthly payment for this group of retirees is now between $10,000 and $13,000 but many receive less than $10,000 a month, president of the Retired Teachers' Association Leo Williams told the Observer yesterday.

"We submitted a proposal to the ministry of finance last year and the response was that they are studying the document," he said.

The proposal was part of a larger submission by the Jamaica Government Pensioners' Association (JGPA) and will be among the issues discussed at their annual general meeting on Saturday, according to president Clinton Davis. He refused to discuss the issue any further for fear of jeopardising the ongoing negotiations.

But the retired educators, many of whom Williams said are in the precarious position of being in their 90s, are faced with health problems such as Alzheimer's, unable to afford adequate health care, and in need of answers - quickly. There are about 1,758 members in the group.

"We have set up a fund for ourselves and from time to time we help those we can, but this is never adequate," Williams said.

The association has received some much-needed help from the Jamaica Teachers' Association's Co-operative Credit Union but some additional help from the government could go a far way, he added.

According to Williams, teachers who retired between 1986 and 1995 were at a disadvantage.

"For people (who retired) from 1996 onward, they have recomputed their pension benefits and those people are getting a better deal now," he said.

In the early years, he explained, teachers' pensions were calculated based on the average of their last three years' salary. After legislative changes in 1996, he said, the calculation was based on the last year's highest salary.
The issue of the need to increase the retired educators' pension was among those on the agenda at last week's ninth annual conference of the Retired Teachers' Association, at the Golf View Hotel in Mandeville.

Former principal of Morant Bay High School in St Thomas William Higgins is at the forefront of the call for an increase.

"We intend to get back to the ministers of education and finance to see what they can work out to help the plight of the poor teachers, some of whom are now receiving $13,000," he said. "I could live with about $25,000."

Higgins argued that he and his colleagues had made tremendous contributions to the growth and development of the country's educational system and had helped shape the lives of some of the island's finest scholars. He and his peers, he said, deserved to be comfortable in their twilight years.

Making it clear that the members of the Retired Teachers' Association, a sub-group of the Jamaica Teachers' Association, were fully aware of the financial constraints facing the country, he stressed that all they needed was "only a little more than they are now getting. so that ends can meet".

"These people coming out now, dem getting a whole bag load of money, which is not right," said Higgins. "We who have retired before 1995 nuh get dem kinda pension now being paid to teachers and other individuals who have worked in the public service."

Higgins and Williams were among hundreds of retired teachers that turned up at last week's conference which was held under the theme, "Analyse the past, appreciate the present, anticipate the future."