The umbrella body for trade unions in Barbados has advised Government against rushing to make any unilateral decision to increase the retirement age as part of its response to the critical state of the country’s National Insurance Fund.What the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB) wants, however, is to see a full investigation into the state of the $4 billion National Insurance Fund and to hear from the Board how the Fund had reached such an “alarming and disturbing” state that it could be depleted by 2034.It was earlier this month that actuary with the National Insurance Board, Derek Osborne disclosed that the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) must be urgently reformed to ensure the Fund is not depleted in the next 12 to 15 years. Increasing the retirement age from 67 was among the suggestions advanced to prevent such a scenario.“CTUSAB cautions against any hasty and unilateral decision on a change to the national retirement age,” the organisation’s General Secretary Dennis de Peiza said in a media statement on Tuesday. “It is proposed that any change is, first, the subject of national discourse.”
