A call has been made not to require police officers to work for 40 years to qualify for full benefits at retirement.
President of the Police Association Mervin Grace said considering the nature of policing, police officers should be exempted from the recent pension reform arrangement which puts the retirement eligibility for public officers after 40 years’ service, instead of 33 and a third which presently exists.
“Years ago, the police could have retired at age 55. The Police Association had written for the same plan that is now before the Barbados Defence Force (BDF). The idea then was that we would have a brain drain if you give this to the police. It was given to the BDF and senior persons in the BDF now retire after giving 25 years of service with their full benefits. Police cannot.
“Yet you have police out here now, senior in age, and still out on the beat. Instead of trying to get younger people into the force, you have a bunch of old geriatrics running behind young boys with guns. At the end of the day we should be allowed to retire early just like any other person,” Grace said.
The association president who raised the concern at the opening ceremony of the Barbados Police Service’s (BPS) Annual Grand Conference 2022, at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, Two Mile Hill, St Michael, suggested that to adjust the qualification period for public officers from 33.3 years to 40 years would turn the situation from bad to worse for police officers.
Grace pointed out that the existing BDF pension plan was drafted by the police service and that contrary to what is said about police officers, the members of the BPS are special considering the nature of their duties and responsibilities.
“We are one of the only organisations that is actually mentioned in the Constitution. No other job on this island is mentioned in the Constitution except the Police for that specific reason that we are separate and distinct,” he said.
Responding to Grace’s concerns, Attorney General Dale Marshall, speaking at the same event, agreed that the matter of how and when police officers work is of tremendous significance. He said the issue of bringing police officers’ retirement in line with the BDF’s was up for review in a previous Barbados Labour Party (BLP) administration.
“Much like you, we can’t see police officers of an advanced age having to do some of the things that they do. At 58, sometimes I am not sure if my knees are going to work when I wake up in the morning. So, we can’t just limit the discussion to one of at what age you receive your pension.
“I think that we have to have a discussion and I really would appreciate that we would begin to talk about it. The Barbados Defence Force officers retire at 55 and that is at the Chief-of-Staff. Their lower ranks retire at 45.
“And obviously for financial stability and so, you may not want to look at early retirement in that way. But we think there are significant benefits to consider the issue of a different retirement age for police officers and that would require consideration of different pension opportunities,” Marshall said. (AH)
