Dear Editor,
I read with sadness in yesterday’s Stabroek News of the plight of a GuySuCo employee unable to receive his much needed sickness benefit from the NIS. Unfortunately this was not an isolated case of an employee losing out on NIS benefits because of the failure of the employer to pay over deducted contributions – in this case GuySuCo. In this regard, our experience is that GuySuCo is not the only such employer.
The letter suggests that like many others, this particular employee has been wrongly advised that the employer’s failure to remit NIS contributions is grounds for depriving him of his benefits. For the sake of clarity, I will quote directly from the National Insurance and Social Security Act Cap. 36:01, Regulation 6 of the National Insurance and Social Security (Contributions) Regulations, which states as follows:
“Where a contribution payable by an employer in respect or on behalf of an insured person is paid after the due date or is not paid, and the delay or failure in making payment thereof is shown to the satisfaction of the Board not to have been with the consent or connivance of, or attributable to any negligence on the part of the insured person, the contribution shall, for the purpose of any right to benefit (emphasis added), be treated as paid on the due date.”
We have been engaged in a number of matters, including some that have reached and been decided by the Courts, which establish clearly that in the absence of any collusion on the part of the employee with the employer to deprive the Scheme of contributions, the NIS must recognise those contributions.
Finally, to echo the sentiments expressed by the GuySuCo employee, we have noticed a reasonableness and willingness at the level of the Board and senior management of the NIS to treat workers more humanely and to settle issues.
Those efforts must be stepped up and should take place at all levels of the NIS since we believe that the officer who dealt with the letter writer may simply not be aware of recent developments, including decisions of the Court. No worker, in times of sickness or during their old age should ever be denied their lawful benefits because of the unlawful conduct of their employers, and in some cases the poor recordkeeping of the NIS.
Yours faithfully,
Christopher Thompson
Attorney-at-law
Christopher Ram and
Associates
Attorneys-at-law
