UAE: Give Increment to Retired People, NCC says

DUBAI (Khaleej Times), February 14, 2007: The National Consultative Council (NCC) has urged that, in view of the spiralling cost of living and ongoing inflation, retired people must get the same increments the government has introduced for public servants. In a heated debate yesterday at the 16th Legislative Chapter with its speaker Abdullah Al Massod in the chair, the Council called for equality between pension given to federal government and local govenment employees. It said UAE nationals who earlier worked for federal government or local government departments should get the same pension on retirement. It also called upon the authorities concerned to increase the average pension for local employees. Local government employees should be brought on par with their counterparts at federal government departments in terms of pension, urged the House. The NCC suggested devising a policy to evaluate and assess pension in accordance with the inflation rate to make sure that the retired people were not affected by high cost of living. It proposed that the salary ceiling of 80 per cent should be discarded to allow retired people avail of a higher pension in accordance with his/her service duration. The House noted that ceiling system imposes restrictions that deprives retired people from getting increments while inflation goes up. It then decided the government should do away with this system to allow national retired people to benefit from increments. “I believe it is not difficult to set an annual increase for pension, a system that is implemented in some AGCC countries,” Ghaith bin Hamil Al Ghaith, NCC member suggested. Echoing the same opinion, another member, Shaikh Ahmed bin Sultan Al Dhairi proposed reconsidering enforced pension laws in view of the inflation and high living cost. The speaker said the NCC will refer the recommendations to the Executive Council for implementation. Nada S. Mussallam, Khaleej Times Copyright © Global Action on Aging