Workers unions ask SPF to delay increase in pension fund contributions |07 March 2022
(L to r) Messrs Maria, Moumou, Robinson and Volcère during the joint press conference on Friday (Photo: Joena Meme)
The Seychelles Pension Fund should reconsider its plan to increase the personal contributions of workers and employers as from April 1, 2022 and also the age adjustment of 65 years for pensionable age as from January 1, 2023.
Representatives of the Seychelles Labour Union (SLU), Seychelles Federation of Workers Union (SFWU) and United Workers Seychelles (UWS) said this in a joint press conference on Friday at the National Museum.
The unions were represented by Mike Maria (SLU), Antoine Robinson (SFWU), Laurent Moumou (UWS) and Ralph Volcère (SLU). The three unions joined hands to work together since August 3 last year to work on propositions government come forward with regarding the welfare of Seychellois workers.
They have made their position clear on the proposed changes being implemented from April 1, 2022 by the Seychelles Pension Fund (SPF) in regards to the Pension Fund contribution increment and also on the age adjustment of 65 years for pensionable age starting January 1, 2023.
“The workers’ unions have jointly asked the SPF to reconsider its plan to increase the personal contributions of workers and employers as from April 1. Currently, Seychellois employees contribute 3 percent of their salaries to the SPF and their employers pay the same amount which amounts to 6 percent. In the proposed increase, employees and employers will contribute 5 percent each, bringing the total contribution for one worker to 10 percent. With the current economic situation, we feel that more consultations should be done before implementing such decisions,” said Mr Volcère, chairman of SLU.
He also shared that SPF invited the unions for a meeting to discuss the recommendations, but “when we went there, we saw that the recommendations were already decisions made. We are constantly engaging them in a conversation via email. Our workers are recommending that these decisions be suspended for a later date. We are the ones representing the workers and SPF should be in discussion with us, not with other organisations which do not represent the interests of the workers. Our major concern is the rise in price of each and everything, but not in salary! The President (Wavel Ramkalawan) himself said there is no money to cater for salary increment, so why are we asking workers to increase their contributions? Our main objection is to suspend the date of implementation.”
As for United Workers Seychelles (UWS) president Laurent Moumou, he said: “All these propositions/decisions being put forward are not necessarily in favour of Seychellois workers due to the economic situation we are in. Commodities are becoming more expensive and these decisions are not in favour of Seychellois. We are asking the government to reconsider its decisions. If the decisions are not viable for the government, it will not be viable for the workers.”
Mr Robinson from the SFWU noted that they are “not completely against the increase, rather against the speed things are being done and the timing. The introduction of the 13th-month salary a few years back was not something that happened by accident, it was done to encourage workers to remain in a job for at least a year. It was also introduced to cater for certain eventualities in the economy such as devaluation and costs of living. We have to see the impact of these decisions on the family and in society. There will be no relief in the families if there is no salary increase. The unions will work together for workers to benefit an increase in salary and our proposal is to delay the decisions taken by the SPF.”
Meanwhile, Mr Volcère also criticised the management of SPF for its mismanagement of funds.
“The SPF does not have sufficient funds to maintain its pension payments in the long term because it has made a series of bad investments over the years. The unions have asked that an investigation be done into the investments made by the SPF and where dividends have not been paid.”
He also recommended that expatriates working here pay a pension in order to get more funds for Seychellois workers.
The unions are also against the new performance-based bonus scheme announced by the cabinet of ministers last year and which will be implemented later in the year.
Vidya Gappy