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Manx government staff compansation scheme outdated
A PLANNED shake-up of ‘complex’ compensation and injury payments for government staff has been announced.
The benefits, which provide for employees who are made redundant or who are injured at work, are linked to various pension schemes which have now been superseded by the government’s Unified Scheme introduced in April this year.
A joint working group including employee representatives has been set up to look at how the system can be modernised. It will be chaired by Alfred Cannan MHK, deputy chairman of the Public Sector Pensions Authority (PSPA).
Mr Cannan said: ‘Current compensation and injury benefits for the island’s public servants have been in place since the 1980s. The employment landscape is now very different. As many of these benefits are based on the early payment of pension, they may encourage recipients to remove themselves from the labour market at a relatively young age.’
He added: ‘The current benefit schemes are complex, to say the least.
‘They do not treat all employees fairly as they vary according to which employment group you belong to, when you joined the public service and how old you are. The working group aims to address these issues and to consider what is a reasonable system for providing benefits in the future. I hope this group can build on the implementation of the Unified Scheme earlier this year and develop, in collaboration with employees and employers, a set of proposals that both treat all public sector workers in a fair and consistent manner and are simpler to understand and administer.’
Mr Cannan said that in setting up the working group the PSPA was bringing employers and employees together to seek a common solution and hoped this approach would produce agreement on proposals that would then go out to formal consultation.
Compensation benefits provide for those public sector workers who are made redundant while injury benefits are available to those injured during the course of their employment and are payable on either a temporary or permanent basis.
Historically, the island’s public service pension and other related benefits for public servants have been based upon equivalent provisions in the UK.
However, because of the implementation of the Unified Scheme and also recent changes made to UK compensation and injury benefit arrangements, the Council of Ministers considered that the Isle of Man arrangements should also be reviewed.
Transitional provisions were introduced which allow access to compensation and injury benefits based upon those currently in place, for a minimum period of one year and a maximum of three years.
This will allow time for the PSPA to draw up its proposals.
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Weather for Isle of Man
Sunday 19 May 2013
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 8 C to 13 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: South east
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Sunny spells
Temperature: 9 C to 13 C
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