Wa, Nov. 17, GNA - Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) has embarked on an elaborate programme to ensure that retired workers received their benefits within one month of application. As a first step, they have made passionate appeals to employers all over the country to feed the Trust with all necessary information on retired employees in order not to delay or impede their benefits. Mr K. Osei-Bimpong, Head of Public affairs of SSNIT announced this at Wa, during a day's seminar for about 100 employers, employees and business organisations on the SSNIT Pension Scheme.

He attributed most of the delays to lack of proper documentations on employees, delay in payment of workers contributions and inaccurate information on employees and called on employers to periodically go through the records of their workers to correct such problems.

Mr Osei-Bimpong said SSNIT had embarked on education programmes to sensitise both employees and employers on their rights and responsibilities that would speed up the process in getting retired benefits.

Mr Osei-Bimpong said field officers would soon be deployed into various regions to step up sensitisation programmes that would create a congenial atmosphere between employers and their workers. Mr Kofi Agyarey, Area Manager of SSNIT said subsidies on goods and services could no longer be sustained due to the limited resources of the country and the rapid population growth and therefore, called on workers to contribute regularly to benefit them when they go on retirement.

He said under the SSNIT working conditions, rules and regulations, there was noting like casual workers.

"In so far as they have been engaged, whether it is one day or one month he has worked and therefore need to be given his contributions". Mr Daniel Awuku, Wa Branch Manager of SSNIT called on employers not to deduct all the 17.5 per cent from workers salaries as that was an infringement against the labour laws of the country. The seminar he said would be replicated in many places to bring their message to the doorsteps of many people.