CSIR calls for pension reforms
THE Director-General of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Ghana, Prof. Paul Bosu, has stressed the urgent need for comprehensive pension reforms to secure the future of workers in Ghana.
He said there was a strong disconnection between the council’s contributions to national development and the current pension system.
“CSIR efficiently exploits Science and Technology (S&T) for socio-economic development in critical areas such as agriculture, industry, environment, aspects of public health and social sciences. Despite the widespread appreciation of the role of science and technology in daily life, our pension system has unfortunately failed to reflect the importance of our contributions.”
At CSIR, we believe that developing comprehensive pension reforms across sectors is crucial to addressing the challenges we face as a country," he said, emphasising the need for reform.
Prof. Bosu made the call in his address at the 10th Biennial National Delegates Conference of the CSIR Senior Staff Association last Thursday in Accra.
Conference
The conference, on the theme: “Addressing Pension and SSNIT Challenges: Securing a Better Future for CSIR Workers," brought together senior staff members to discuss critical issues affecting their post-retirement welfare.
It comes at a crucial time when developing countries, including Ghana, are grappling with pension-related challenges that threaten the financial security of retiring workers.
CSIR, as Ghana's premier scientific research institution, is advocating sector-wide pension reforms to address these challenges.
Through this conference, CSIR aims to catalyse discussions and actions toward developing more sustainable and equitable pension solutions for its workers, to ensure that their contributions to national development are appropriately recognised and rewarded in retirement.
Implication
The National President of the Senior Staff Association (SSA), Fred Tekpor, said although CSIR has achieved significant progress as an institution, the past years have been the most difficult for the Council as well as the Association due to the current harsh economic crisis.
He addressed the current state of CSIR retirees on Tier 2 saying: “We are in active service today, but sooner or later we will all join the club of retirees.
“The current state of our CSIR retired workers leaves much to be desired, as most of our gallant retirees are being paid ridiculous amounts of money as lump sum retirement benefits, since 2020.”
This, he said, would have a negative psychological effect on the retirees themselves, as well as a potential implication of demoralising and demotivating the current staff.
Mr Tekpor further called on the Director-General and Council to prevail on the government to address this issue immediately.