-threaten legal action

Commentator Christopher Ram and 10 unions  have written the NIS Board threatening legal action over the arrears of statutory minimum old-age pension due to pensioners since 2021.

The letter from Christopher Ram and Associates dated October 1^st, 2026 was sent to the Secretary of the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) Board and copied to the Chairman of the National Insurance Board, the General Manager of the NIS and the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance.

The letter stated that in 2015, regulation 4(b) of the Benefit Regulations was amended to increase the statutory minimum old-age pension from 40% to 50% of the Public Service minimum wage. The requirement is mandatory, it said.

“The last year in which this requirement was met was 2020, when the Public Service minimum wage was $70,000 and the NIS minimum pension was $35,000. Since then, the Public Service minimum wage has increased several times, but the Board has failed to adjust the minimum pension in accordance with the said regulation 4 (b). On the published figures, pensioners on the minimum rate have therefore been paid below the statutory minimum for substantial periods from 2021 onwards”, the letter stated.

The letter said that the position remains current. It pointed out that the  2026 National Estimates show the Public Service minimum wage at $102,346. Fifty per cent of that amount is $51,173, yet the published NIS minimum pension remains $43,075. Therefore, each minimum-rate pensioner suffers a monthly shortfall of $8,098.

“Nor is the default cured by a later increase. The subsequent adjustment of the minimum pension does not extinguish arrears which had already accrued. Equally, where a Public Service minimum-wage increase was made retroactive to the beginning of a year, the Board must identify the legal basis, if any, upon which the corresponding statutory pension entitlement was not adjusted from the same effective date”, the letter contended.

It further noted that section 34(2) of the Act expressly provides that any temporary  insufficiency in the assets of the Fund to meet its liabilities shall be met from monies advanced by Parliament for that purpose.

“We therefore call upon the Board, within seven days of receipt of this letter, to state its position on the underpayments from 2021 to the present, and to account fully for the amounts by which minimum-rate pensioners were paid below the statutory minimum”, the letter urged.

Having regard to its obligation under the said regulation 4(b), the letter said that the Board should forthwith identify every affected pensioner, calculate the arrears due, and make payment. If the Board disputes liability, it should state, within the same seven days, the precise legal basis on which it asserts that payment below the statutory minimum was lawful.

“In the absence of a satisfactory response within seven days, we will, without further notice, commence proceedings against the Board in the name of one or more of the signatories and/or affected pensioners, individually and/or in a representative capacity. The relief sought will include appropriate declarations, an account of all sums due, payment of arrears with interest, mandatory relief to secure continuing compliance, costs, and such further relief as the Court considers just”, the letter warned.

It added that the missive constitutes formal notice of intended proceedings.

Ram has pressed the NIS on a series of issues.

The letter yesterday was signed by Lincoln Lewis, General Secretary of the Guyana Trades Union Congress; John Tull of the National Union of Public Service Employees; Norris Witter of the General Workers Union; Kimberly Porter of the Guyana Local Government Officers Union; Leroy Levans of the Union of Agricultural and Allied Workers; Eon Andrews of the United Minibus Union; Eon Andrews of the Guyana Market Vendors Union; Eslyn Harris of the Guyana Postal and Telecommunications Workers Union; Arnold Barron of the GTC/GTT Pensioners Association and Lincoln Lewis for the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union.

In a comment to Kiskadee Watch on the action, Ram said: “We have been drawn into this action because a statutory right designed to protect the elderly and vulnerable has been curtailed by an administration that has failed to do what the law requires. In a country whose extraordinary growth has been repeatedly celebrated, minimum pensioners should not have to fight for a few thousand dollars already theirs by law.

“For years, the Board and Government have failed to confront the actuarial warnings and repair the Scheme, while finding $10 billion for an ad hoc NIS intervention. Neither the 2026 Budget nor its Mid-year Report show how that money was spent – let alone indicate how that intervention addressed the Scheme’s structural weaknesses. Instead of carrying the burden of their own inaction, the Directors of the National Scheme have shifted it to the people least able to bear it – the poorest pensioners. Institutional failure at the top borne by financial sacrifice at the bottom.

“I also commend the unions that have responded to join in this initiative. At a time of disturbing civil-society silence, their willingness to stand with pensioners is an important reminder that somebody is still prepared to defend the vulnerable against institutional indifference, administrative failure and the raw power of the State”.