Former Petrotrin employees are again calling on the Government to do what is necessary to ensure they receive their pension plan benefits.
On Monday evening, the ex-employees, led by Oilfield Workers Trade Union (OWTU) representatives, held a demonstration at the roundabout in front of the entrance to the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery to show their discontent with the status of their pension plan.
OWTU leader Ancel Roget, who recently delivered a letter to the Office of the Prime Minister, has called on the Government to reinstate the Petrotrin employees’ pension and medical plans.
OWTU Pointe-a-Pierre branch committee member Clyde Ramesar said, “The situation with the pension plan being in deficit is a cause of great alarm again. These workers, ex-Petrotrin employees, have gone through so much in the past four years, only to be faced with the reality of a pension plan that is in deficit, that they are dependent on in the future to continue to live their lives, to meet their obligations, to pay their bills, to maintain a quality of life where they can be healthy, not necessarily wealthy, but healthy and at peace and every single one of those objectives are challenged at this point in time, simply because the Government in their wisdom or lack thereof, decided to close down the Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago.”
Ramesar said the Government gave a commitment that the pension plan would have operated as a closed plan and meet any deficits.
“If it was $2 billion deficit in 2018, we could only reasonably expect that it would be more than $2 billion at this point in time. The company is not telling us anything. The Minister of Finance made a statement in Parliament that the plan is in surplus by virtue of a six per cent return of investment, a six per cent interest that is being earned but I mean that is almost being smart with foolishness or insulting the collective intelligence of every single employee of Petrotrin, because you don’t determine the rate of return on the plan as the Minister of Finance, you cannot stand up and decree that we have a six per cent return of investment on the plan.”
They are now demanding that the Government honour the commitments made to them.
