By Steven Godfrey Mkweteza
The Human Resource Society of Malawi (HRSM), says the implementation of the 2023 pension amendment Act would be successful if only human resources personal of various companies are well equipped with adequate knowledge about the Act.
Secretary General for the society, Robin Kajasiche said this in an interview on the sideline of a day long continuous professional workshop on pension Act and labour relations and employment Act which was held in Blantyre.
Kajasiche said his society had noted an information gap on issues related to the current 2023 Pension scheme and labour relations Acts among the Human Resource personnel, hence the need to equip them with correct knowledge for the smooth implementation of the Acts.
“We need the industrial relations to be harmonised and cordial most especially among the employer and employees so as the implementation of the Acts are successful,” said Kajasiche.
Over the years, employees have been lobbying for changes in the pension Act, to enable them access a bigger share and they pushed for an increase in the lump-sum from 40 percent to 70 and allowed to access it before registering.
The workshop, which brought together a total of 39 human resources personals and pension administrators, tacked various topics.
“The waiting period was among the contextual issues especially for employees who had lost or retired
However, instead of six months waiting period, they will now be able to access 100 percent of their monthly contributions in three months period,” he highlighted.
In a separate interview, the human resources and planning officer in the ministry of mining, Mphatso Mfipa, described the workshop as an eye opener as far as the implementation of 2023 Pension amendment and employment Acts were concerned.
“At first we were so confused with information that we used to get as regards to this Act. Therefore, through this workshop, the capacity gap has been narrowed and surely, the implementation of the Acts will be very successful” she said.
Early this year, Reserve Bank of Malawi (RBM), said Pension contribution arrears stood at K27 billion from 999 employees out of 3073 on the Nation Pension Scheme.
Pension Act was promulgated in 2011, and amended in 2014 to provide more time for government to comply with the Act and also registration of Pension funds by the Registrar of financial institutions do their work, but there have been hiccups since, other employees could not understand this better.
