HAVING worked at the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) for a long time, I tend to agree with the letter “Old-Age ‘benefits’ or ‘hardships’?” (June 27), and wish to present the true picture of today’s EOBI before the pensioners. It is a tripartite institution consisting of three stakeholders; the government, the employers and the employees.
The main reasons behind the poor performance and maladministration is the government policy of continuously ignoring the EOBI despite repeatedly talking about improving the lot of the pensioners.
Subsequent governments have repeatedly increased the EOBI pension amounts for political mileage, but they do this without restoring the ‘matching grant’, which represents the government’s share in the EOBI fund, which was stopped way back in 1995. As a result, the EOBI pension fund has been severely affected.
The writer is a consultant in employee relations at AKUH and teaches labour welfare laws at IBA.
THOSE who receive pension from the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) are wondering why the monthly amount has not been increased through the central budget for 2021–2022. The answer is that any amendments in the labour laws cannot be carried out through the Finance Act.
In this respect, a two-judge bench of the Sindh High Court had, through its judgement of Feb 26, 2011, nullified the amendments effected by the government in five labour laws through the Finance Act, 2007. According to the court, the amendments did not fall within the ambit of the money bill and therefore should have been passed by both Houses of parliament.
THIS refers to the two letters “Old age ‘benefits’ or ‘hardships’?” (June 27) which complained of problems with card activation and biometric verification systems. I am also a pensioner and I have also suffered the same ordeal. My experience, however, suggests that the systems are fine, and it is the unprofessional attitude of the bank staff handling the pensioners which is the real rot. They consider the pensioners a spent entity having no commercial value, and deal with them accordingly.
I have the experience of dealing with them both as a commercial account holder and as a pensioner. Some of the bank staff (not all) deal differently in my two different positions. This is normal. But none of them has the right to behave like sadists.
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