{"id":27023,"date":"2025-03-19T19:43:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-19T19:43:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=27023"},"modified":"2025-03-19T19:43:49","modified_gmt":"2025-03-19T19:43:49","slug":"public-servants-can-choose-between-pension-and-gratuity-says-finance-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/public-servants-can-choose-between-pension-and-gratuity-says-finance-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Servants Can Choose Between Pension and Gratuity, Says Finance Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Saskia Warrick<\/strong>
February 17, 2025<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public sector employees have the option to choose between receiving a pension or gratuity upon retirement, a policy reaffirmed by Minister of Finance and Public Service, Dr. Ashni Singh, during a session of the National Assembly earlier today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The issue was raised by Opposition Member of Parliament Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, who expressed concerns about the long-term financial sustainability of gratuity and the high number of contract workers in the public sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She suggested that this employment structure could lead to instability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response, Dr. Singh disclosed that, as of the end of 2024, there were 8,173 contract employees in the public sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he stressed that workers are not obligated to choose one option over the other and are instead given the freedom to decide what best suits their post-retirement financial plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The finance minister also referenced the previous administration\u2019s policy of transitioning contract workers into pensionable positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to him, this shift resulted in financial setbacks for many employees, as salary adjustments led to lower take-home pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additionally, Dr. Singh pointed to substantial wage increases implemented over the past four years, which have contributed to making public service jobs more attractive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He noted that this has led to an increasing number of private-sector teachers moving into the public system, drawn by improved salaries and benefits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Saskia WarrickFebruary 17, 2025 Public sector employees have the option to choose between receiving a pension or gratuity upon retirement, a policy reaffirmed by Minister of Finance and Public…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25291,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[350],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27024,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27023\/revisions\/27024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}