Approximately 500 retirees from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) have not received their pension.
And their grievance has been picked up by the Joint Trade Union Movement (JTUM).
Vincent Cabrera, public relations officer of JTUM, said in a release on Tuesday, "approximately 500 daily paid and monthly paid workers who retired from the NHA (National Housing Authority) and HDC for a considerable period of time had not been in receipt of their occupational pensions."
Cabrera said these pensioners had been surviving for years on the $3,000 National Insurance Scheme (NIS) and had been petitioning HDC for their pension.
"Despite serveral promises from the management of HDC, the retirees have been forced to live on the $3,000 a month paid by the NIS, placing them in a state of poverty, not being able to take care of bills and other expenses," the release read.
Jearlean John, managing director of HDC, said the corporation was working on creating a pension plan. However, HDC was awaiting approval from the Board of Inland Revenue (BIR).
"We made the provisions for the pension plan. In the Act there was a clause that spoke to the HDC. We are working on the pension plan and currently it is before the BIR," John said.
In Section 35 of the HDC Act, it was mandated that a pension arrangement must be created to cover employees. The Act gave HDC a deadline of September 13, 2007, and in August 2006 work on the pension plan began.
John said when the pension plan was approved, the retirees would receive a backpay for the outstanding pension money.
"When we have the approved pension plan, whatever is outstanding we will pay that. There would be a backpay due to the workers. All of these workers are going to receive a lump sum," John said.
A release from the HDC on Wednesday reaffirmed John's statement that the pension plan was in the process of being created.
In August 2012 the plans were formally submitted to the BIR for approval.
By letter, dated December 29, 2014, the final versions of the plans were submitted to the BIR for approval. Since then the HDC has been awaiting a formal response from the BIR on the plans' approval.
On Tuesday, HDC had an official meeting with the BIR which indicated that a recommendation would be made to the board for approval of the plan by today.