Civil Servants welcome ESB restoration

The Civil Servants Association of Ghana (CSAG), on Tuesday said it would soon submit proposal to the Speaker of Parliament for the reintroduction of the Civil Servants Pension Scheme CAP 30.

Mr Smart Chigabatia, Executive Secretary of CSAG, in an interview with the GNA praised the reintroduction of the End of Service Benefit Scheme, saying, "it is in the right direction for the employer to take care of his employee when he retires from his service.

CSAG support the introduction of the ESB and we would also not relent in our efforts to fight for the CAP 30, which is our due". Mr Smart Chigabatia said CSAG and its allies, who are not beneficiaries of the ESB scheme, would continue to press for the reintroduction of CAP 30.

The National Tripartite Committee, made up of representatives of government, organised labour and employers, on Monday recommended the introduction of a new End of Service Benefit (ESB) scheme to supplement the SSNIT Pension scheme.

The Committee said the scheme, should be agreed upon at the enterprise level and its terms negotiated in accordance with the principles of free collective bargaining. The Executive Secretary said the SSNIT pension scheme could not replace CAP 30, but should only supplement it.

Mr Chigabatia said CSAG would be fair in negotiating for the restoration of CAP 30, adding that, it would not be appropriate to give civil servants a flat pension, while the benefits of other government employees were determined by better formulae.

He said it was discriminatory and unconstitutional for the government to extend the benefits of CAP 30, which is non-contributory, to only a section of its employees.

"We started fighting for the restoration of CAP 30 when the previous government was in office and we have also alerted the present government," he said. The Ghana Police, Prisons and Ghana National Fire Services, were put back on CAP 30 by various Acts between 1985 and 1997, even though they became beneficiaries of the SSNIT pension Scheme when the CAP 30 was modified to benefit civil servants, who were employed before 1972.

Following the recommendations of the Mills Odoi Commission, the government of the National Liberation Council (NLC) in 1969, introduced an option clause to allow civil servants, who were 45 years and beyond to decide whether they would remain under CAP 30 and contribute five per cent of their income towards their pension or join the Social Security Provident Fund.

Mr Chigabatia said those, who were less than 45 years, had no choice but to join Social Security Scheme. During the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC) regime, the contributory nature of CAP 30 was abolished, he said.

Workers, who retired under CAP 30, usually received bigger pensions than their counterparts on the SSNIT Pension Scheme. Mr Chigabatia urged civil servants and their allies in the Ghana Registered Nurses Association, Judicial Service Association of Ghana and the Ghana National Association of Teachers to support CSAG's cause.