The Oilfield Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) is calling for urgent action to prevent a financial crisis for 7,000 Petrotrin retirees due to the Government’s alleged failure to inject funds into the Petrotrin Employees Pension Plan (PEPP).
Pointe-a-Pierre branch president Christopher Jackman yesterday said retirees are concerned that the PEPP is losing $400 million annually, even as they continue to receive their disbursements, which they are entitled to, until they die.
He warned that if this trend continues, international investments in equities could be depleted by next year, while local equities might be exhausted by 2036. For the fund to survive, it needs a substantial annual investment of between US$100 million and US$250 million to address the growing deficit, he said.
“We cannot treat this as an issue that we can just ignore and wind up the plan because not only will it affect Trinidad and Tobago’s economy when the local equities are dissolved, this will now put 8,100 families in a position of becoming destitute,” Jackman said.
He was speaking outside the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago (CBTT), after leading a group of retirees in a two-part mission to advocate for the pension plan. The group first gathered outside Republic Bank Limited’s Park Street branch to deliver a letter to the trustee of the PEPP, calling for the establishment of a management committee. They then proceeded to the CBTT to deliver a letter demanding an update on the fund from the supervisor of pensions.
Before Petrotrin’s closure in November 2018, employees retired between ages 50 and 55 and expected to receive their pension. In July 2021, OWTU president general Ancel Roget reported a $1.6 billion deficit in the PEPP and said actuary Bacon Woodrow and De Souza Ltd had advised then-Petrotrin chairman Wilfred Espinet that an initial injection of $250 million was necessary, followed by annual payments of $135 million for the next decade.
To date, the union claimed no funds have been injected into the pension plan.
“We have been talking and trying to negotiate for the last six years and we have had enough. Now is the time for our voices to be heard. Now is time to ensure that if it is they don’t resolve this, they will face the penalties of this in the polls,” Jackman declared.
Petrotrin workers were also guaranteed life-long healthcare for themselves and their dependents but when the refinery closed, they were given the option to voluntarily join an insurance plan at Sagicor which the Government contributed to for two years.
Once that subvention was discontinued, members were required to cover their bills in full.
Allston Francois, 73, who retired in 2011 after working at Petrotrin for 39 years, said his wife suffered the consequences of him giving up his insurance.
“One month after I dropped out the plan, she gets sick, serious sick... Serious sick and died in the hospital,” he lamented.
Dhanraj Goolcharan, 76, who retired in 2008 after 41 years with the company, said: “My pension is my only source of income and if I lose that then I will be facing stark poverty.”
Jackman suggested that Government should contribute to the plan through Heritage Petroleum Company Limited, one of the two companies that succeeded Petrotrin. He called on Energy Minister Stuart Young to ensure this occurs.
“Let Heritage cover the debt. They (Trinidad Petroleum Holdings Limited) are legally entitled to cover the debt in the plan according to the trust deed and rules. Live up to your responsibility and stop us having to fight all these matters in court,” he said.
Efforts to reach Minister Young, Finance Minister Colm Imbert, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Brian Manning and Heritage Petroleum for comments were unsuccessful.
