Minister-designate for Employment and Labour Relations, Ignatius Baffour Awuah, has said a national dialogue on the issue of the extension of the compulsory retirement age is encouraged to build a national consensus on the matter.
Honorable Baffour Awuah said he supports the extension to 65 years but added that the concerns of young people looking for jobs must be considered and argued that extending the compulsory retirement age will ensure the sustainability of the national pension scheme.
His comments and proposal came when the Member of Parliament for Bawku Central, Mahama Ayariga, advocated for the extension of the compulsory retirement age for public servants and judicial officers from 60 to 65 years during Parliament’s Appointments Committee vetting of
Honorable Ayariga said “Many people start family life late and their children are mostly still in school when they are compulsorily retired and family incomes are negatively affected with dire consequences for the education of their children. The extended retirement age will ensure that youth are guaranteed family income to sponsor their education,” he explained.
“With improved health care and increased life expectancy, the current compulsory retirement age of 60 years hurts the public service and judiciary and denies them of healthy, competent and experienced people. And many of them live an additional twenty years or more and become a burden on the pension scheme which has to support them in retirement when they could work,” the legislator added.
The National Pension Act provides for both full and partial pensions. For full pension, a worker must have attained 60 years of age (55 years) if working under hazardous conditions) with at least 180 months (15 years) of contributions.
The retirement age in Ghana varies depending on whether the employee is engaged in public or private sector employment but the statutory retirement age for persons employed in public service is 60 years. However, a civil servant who has attained the compulsory retirement age may be appointed on a limited engagement for 2 years at a time not exceeding 5 years in total where he or she (i) has retired from the civil service on the attainment of the compulsory retirement age; (ii) must have been inactive service serving in that capacity before attaining the compulsory retirement age; (iii) and that there must be nobody immediately available to occupy the position that he or she will be re-engaged on a contract basis to serve.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Kofi Atakora
