(Visit related story) drew angry comments from workers over the controversial pension scheme.
Here are some comments from the email segment of the poll:
a) A pension scheme is good provided they don’t touch the EPF funds
b) They should not touch the EPF but start a new Pension Bill for all citizens.
c) There is no need for a private pension scheme by the government. They could lay out the scheme and ask the private sector to follow it if the majority wishes. The EPF or ETF should not be touched. The Insurance Corporation had a scheme on insurance towards a pension for skilled workers but that also ran into problems.
d) First pay our contributions to the EPF. This is our money and the government has no business to touch it. If at all they can pay the pension from the taxes that we have paid them, to keep THEM going.
e) The private sector can set up its own pension fund if the employees want it. There is a case for converting the EPF into a pension fund at least from half the contributions. But the Central Bank management of a fund is now suspect.
f) When the EPF was introduced it was in place of the pension in the government sector.
g) The provision of another bureaucracy, with added expenses to implement a pension is unnecessary because the existing EPF can be used for the purpose by giving the option to turn the EPF into a pension, with the balances to be paid to survivors in the event of death.
h) In this fast ageing society with small families, a pension scheme is a necessity. But it should be an elders' social security plan funded by the National Budget.
i) A pension scheme should be prepared in consultation with various segments of employees as well as the employers; the workers who give up their jobs after some time like the female workers in the FTZ need not come into this scheme; the EPF could continue for them.
j) The private sector should be permitted to manage its own schemes under strict supervision.
k) There are some good things to be said about a universal pension scheme for the lowest paid in society. But given the burden this will create in another decade for the government as the population begins to age, a much better solution is curtailing health care inflation by investing in health care and controlling food and energy price inflation. These three elements constitute over 80% of a retiree’s expenses.
l) A pension scheme should jointly be managed by the public /private while government will be the custodian
m) The contribution should be voluntary ranging from zero to 100%, as people have varying needs at the time of retirement
n) This is a scam like everything else proposed by the Government.
n) The private sector should not be burdened with contributions to both schemes. It should be either or. The ETF can continue. Those who retire after 55 should be persuaded to join the pension scheme which is better than the EPF; the latter is normally busted up by most employees as they do not know how to invest.
o) There should be an independent trustee approved and elected by fund members. It should be the fiduciary duty of the trustee to make investments in the best interest of the fund members. If part of that mechanism is investing in government projects, so be it. That should not be decided by the government, but by independent trustees. |
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