…Finance Minister says Luncheon best person to address issueWhen questions were posed to Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh last week Thursday about an update on the position of unpaid or underpaid former Guyana Telecommunications Corporation (GTC) and Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GT&T) workers,Cheap Air Max Shoes For Sale, he said to this newspaper that he was “unfamiliar” with the matter.Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger LuncheonHe added that Kaieteur News “should direct all questions to Cabinet Secretary Dr. Roger Luncheon who would be the best person to address the matter.”Dr. Singh said that the Cabinet Secretary would have better knowledge of what might be happening with the pension payments.Dr. Luncheon however distanced himself from being directly involved or being a “point person” on the telecoms matter being engaged by both the Government’s National Industrial and Commercial Investments Limited (NICIL) and the representatives of the over 130 pensioners; the Postal and General Workers Union (GPTWU).At the post-Cabinet’s press briefing, Office of the President yesterday, when asked for an update on his role regarding the controversy, Dr. Luncheon said that he could not speak to the issue. He told reporters that the pensioners’ issue is being addressed by the Chief Executive Officer and the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of NICIL.Dr. Luncheon, who sat on the NICIL Board of Directors for several years now,China Jerseys Cheap, rejected any claims that he would have decisive information pertaining to the issue. When asked about a package purportedly prepared for the pensioners by Winston Brassington, Luncheon said, “I am a Director. The CEO and the Deputy CEO and the Board of Directors have some consideration of this matter. But the notion that I am a point person; this I have to repudiate. This is a collective responsibility of the system; both NICIL,NFL Jerseys 2018, the Ministry of Finance and, I suppose the successor (of the telecoms agency).”Dr. Luncheon also refuted claims by the unpaid pensioners that Government officials have not been coming to the bargaining table to speak to the issue. He concluded that the matter is being addressed, “but not by Luncheon. It is being addressed by NICIL, by the Ministry of Finance and the successor.”In the meantime,Cheap Jerseys, the former GTC/GT&T pensioners are contemplating their next mode of approach to the issue given that the pensioners’ union has warned that it is at its wits end of discussions. The pensioners are earnestly contemplating protest and legal redress in order to obtain millions of dollars of unpaid pension and gratuity payments.At an urgent meeting last Thursday the pensioners and their union warned that they are exploring one more avenue before taking to the streets and possibly the court. They said they have asked the Opposition members to take the matter to parliament so that it could be addressed.The issue, they say, dates back to the early 1990s when GTC became GT&T and workers were asked to remain on the job past the previous retirement age of 55. They said that they were ensured that all benefits would be paid, however, more than 20 years later; pensioners say managers down to sanitary workers are receiving a monthly pension of $18,000.They said that over two dozen of those said pensioners have since passed on without ever receiving their due pensions.Additionally, the pensioners said that the government requested a compromise on due payments asking for benefits to be accepted from 2004,China Jerseys For Sale, thus denying the retirees some 13 years of service payment which the union strongly rejected.GPTWU said that it had never taken the matter to court or protested the issue because they did not want to be confrontational. They said however,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, that the current position of the pensioners’ pay is leading them in a direction otherwise.