(CNS): In order to fund compliance of the law governing private pensions the government has increased fees associated with the on-going registration of pension plans and employed a new pension inspector. According to government officials Charles Best who joined the National Pensions Office on 1 July, comes with significant practical investigative experience, which will assist the office to prosecute cases of non-compliance with the National Pensions Law. Government has recently announced that changes are taking place in the Department of Employment relations which will lead to a new labour enforcement agency that will include the NPO. It is also in the process of introducing fixed penalties for employers who do not comply with the law when it comes to providing employees with a pension.
Speaking in the Legislative Assembly recently the Minister for Labour, Rolston Anglin, announced plans to rearrange the DER and split it into two agency the Human capital development agency which will deal with employment and training issues, while a new unit will deal directly with all labour law enforcement issues such as compliance with pensions and health insurance. The minister said the goal is to create a compliance culture, which will be integral to the creation of a more effective regime for the regulation of private sector pensions.
Consultation with various stakeholders is currently in process in order to make the necessary changes to legislation and the ministry is working with the NPO board to make the changes and to the transition of the regulation of pensions by CIMA.
An amendment to the National Pensions (General) Regulations has already been made to increase fees associated with the on-going registration of pension plans and the administration of the NPL in Cabinet.
It was recently revealed that more than 600 employers were not in compliance with the pension’s law and the Office of the Complaints Commissioner is currently undertaking an investigation.
The minister recently introduced a twelve month suspension of the obligation by employers to pay in to a fund for their staff. It was only available to those who were complying with the law and designed to soften the blow of work permit increases for employers and stimulate the economy by giving both employees access to their share of the contribution for 12 months. However, uptake has been extremely limited with no more than 2% of employees asking for the holiday.
Category: Business
The Minister’s announcement in the Legislative Assembly is his plan for the offices and does not represent the current approach. My concern is that the National Pensions Office has never been staffed to do its job properly and now he is going to split it into sections that will join other departments. The part that deals with problem employers will join the DER and the part that deals with pension plans will join CIMA.
One key problem since CIMA and DER are known for not having enough resources now, when the additional work is added to them, who is going to do it? Even if the staff of the National Pensions Office moves to the DER and CIMA, we already know each don’t have enough resources so how is that going to help the problem?
I fear that this change will make the problem worst not better.
The Labour Department administers/enforces the LABOUR LAW and not the PENSIONS LAW or HEALTH INSURANCE LAW.
It is time for person that use this medium for their own personal gratification to ensure that before they start :blogooing" that they have their facts STRAIGHT- as comments like the one about the lady from San Andres makes the author appear to be a moron.
As an employer, all three agencies do a wonderful job with the tools that that they have to work with (i.e. the legislation and lack of personnel). There must be a move to do whatever it takes to get these 3 offices fully functional.
To the good Minister- please make immediate changes to the Labour, Pensions and Health Insurance Law that will incorporate administrative fines for non compliance. This is a good way for the Premier to get some more pennies in the kitty.
It is a waste of time to go talk to the Labour Board about pension and health matters because the Labour Department DOES NOT deal with pension and health matters. Maybe instead of bashing the Labour Deparment you should go to the relevant authorities and complain like the Pension and Health Commissioners who are responsible for these matters and not the Labour Board.
And these lowlife "thieves" who take deductions from employee’s wages and do not pay into pension or health insurance plans are competing in the business world at an unfair advantage. Other legitimate businesses have to count these payments being made as part of their overhead, and therefore cannot compete at the lower rates quoted by the ‘thieves’. Wake up Cayman. We must not continue to have these thieves among us!
the ones most responsible are not ‘among’ us…… they are over us, ruling us.
In reply to the comments by poster "Need for Change", the Labour Office does not currently handle Pensions issues so your facts are incorrect.
All matters pertaining to Pensions are handled through the NPO and matters regarding health insurance is the responsibility of the NHIC.
What about Health Insurance complaince???? This is far more important than the pension compliance as a large percentage of the foreign workers especially in the construction area and from certain jurisdictions do not want to participate in a pension plan. Persons without health insurance are a liability as they cannot be refused medical attention by the hospital and if they do not have the funds or the insurance to pay then they are costing the government money. Persons who do not participate in the pension are not costing our government money. This comment is not to support the employers who are deducting pension from their employees and not paying it into a pension fund as this is STEALING and if they do this they should be prosecuted nor am I supporting employers who refuse to pay pension to employees who want to participate – I am saying if a foreign employee DOES NOT want to participate why are they being forced to – especially in light of the 7 year roll over and the trouble that they encounter in getting their funds when they have to leave.
It Is STEALING and every government official who lets it continue is a Thief. A Thief.
I have a very good friend here from San Andres who was working with tourist water front, each paycheck she received there was a deduction for pension and health insurance, one day she got very sick and went to George Town Hospital they asked for her insurance, she then called her boss so she could get the information, her boss told her, "You dont have insurance" she started checking then and found out that he had not also paid in over two years of pension payments!!!!!!!!!
She went to Labor Board and was told that the empoyer would be called in, that took almost a year to happen, in that time the employer keep on doing his deduction and not paying the earned vacations pay. Turns out the owner of the company is good friends with the Labor Board Officer. This has been now four years, I finally see on the Court Docket the other day where this same employer has MANY charges against him for deduction and not paying pension and insurance. Yet the Labor Board has never called my friend back, she keeps calling them and they keep telling her someone is dealing with it. It is a waste of your time to go and talk to Labor Board!
This the the root of many of the problems in Government Offices. Everyone knows somebody.. laws are not enforced.
Hellooooooo when I last checked the Labour Board has NOTHING to do with Pension or Health – they each have their respective departments who handle this ………. so why is she/he calling the Labour Department for assistance when they should be calling the Pension and Health Commissioners. As this is not a Labour matter I am sure this person was told to contact the relevant authorities to have the matter dealt with – its therefore no wonder that they are not getting a call from the Labour Department because the complaint is not Labour related.
Hellooooooooo,
why then doesn’t whomever at the labor board point the complaintant in the right direction???????
hahahahahahahahahahaha hohohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah whew hahahahahahahahahahahahhohohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho jeez I love this stuff…..boy these govt. people are such bulldogs when it come to protecting us hahahahahahahahahahahahahahah hohohohohohohohohohohohohohoho heeheeheeheeheeheehe. I feel really good now… we’re getting ‘a more effective regime’. hahahahahahahahahahahah…………………. Hey, Ive got an idea…. some one takes MY money and doesn’t invest it in a pension, how about they ummmm (how do I say this and be nice) oh heck, I’ll just say it: how about they be prosecuted for THEFT. WHAT TO HECK IS SO HARD ABOUT HOLDING PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR MISDEEDS??????
Where does an emplyee stand if an employer is deducting the pensioon money from their wages, but is not then paying it to the pension. Will they be instructed to pay the interest which would have beenearned along with the deficit?
Sorry Bro, read the article again:
“It was recently revealed that more than 600 employers were not in compliance with the pension’s law…”
CNS has been fooled by government again, this is not “recently revealed” news, year after year we hear about hundreds of employers not being in compliance with the law, yet still only one or two get charged in court. It must be great to have friends in the right places!
So where do we employees stand, where we have always been, at the bottom of everything with nobody looking out for us.
All of government did nothing to help me when my employer stole my pension money.
FED UP!
Government didn’t pay my mothers pension for 25yrs and still haven’t…they are just blowing wind up all of our a###3 as usual, say one thing, do the complete opposite, turn a blind eye, we don’t care its not our problem.
And what will happen if this pensions office starts to uncover misdeeds from years back…well i hope they don’t put it into a report…because we all know what happens then.