The National Tripartite Committee, representing the government, organised labour and employers, has recommended the introduction of a new End of Service Benefit (ESB) scheme to supplement the SSNIT pension scheme.
The scheme, the Committee said, should be agreed upon at the enterprise level and its terns negotiated in accordance with the principles of free collective bargaining. A communiqu? issued at the end of a meeting at which members of the Tripartite Committee considered the report of its Technical Sub-Committee on ESB, said enterprises should set up funds for the payment of the new ESB.
Minister for Employment and Manpower Development, Mrs. Cecilia Bannerman, who represented the government side, Mr. Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of Trades Union Congress (ESB) and Mr. Ato Ampiah, representatives of organised labour and employers respectively, signed the communiqu?.
In negotiating for the ESB, the Committee said, parties should be mindful that the new scheme would not jeopardise the financial viability of their enterprises. The Tripartite Committee said it would initiate steps for the government to consider making employers' and or employees' contributions to these ESB schemes tax exempt.
All funds accruing to the scheme, the Committee said, should be managed separately and independent of the enterprise. It said, "employees should as much as practicable have access to the benefits under the new scheme only when leaving the service of their employer", and encouraged parties at the enterprise level to explore the possibilities of modifying the operations of existing supplementary schemes to emphasise their terminal character.
Commenting on the previous ESB, which was frozen in 1990, the Tripartite Committee said, "there were real problems and difficulties with many of the ESB schemes that existed before the termination, especially in relation to their management and sustainability as regard funding of the schemes.
Following a Bipartite agreement between the government and the TUC in 1990, the ESB scheme was terminated after payment of benefits negotiated at the enterprise levels.
The termination of the ESB scheme attracted mixed feelings and agitation from workers; especially those that were deemed disqualified by their enterprises, and, therefore received no benefits at all from their employers.
Workers, consequently, welcomed the announcement by the government last year that the ESB scheme would be restored, following which the Tripartite Committee convened to consider the issue.
The Tripartite Committee said the ESB was restored to provide an enhanced financial security for the worker in retirement as a means of promoting equity, higher productivity and loyalty within the establishment or organisation.
Mr. Adu-Amankwah said the terms and benefits under the scheme would not be universal in nature, but would be determined at the enterprise level, adding that positive features of the old scheme could be incorporated.
He said enterprises with collective bargaining power whose agreements were due for renegotiation could start considering the ESB for inclusion in their reviewed agreements.
Mr. Ampiah urged workers to be willing to contribute to the scheme so that their employers would be encouraged to play their part and for the scheme to be sustainable.
