“I am a victim of the first lot of civil servants who were told to pack up and move out in 2009. I also had friends who have passed away. They had bills to pay, they had housing loans to pay off. I had to go and find employment overseas for three years. For what? To pay off my housing loans, the loans that I took before retirement. If I had retired at the age of 60, I would have paid it off.” VINCENT McKENZIE
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A retired school principal and a Tamavua resident, Vincent McKenzie, says he is one of the many victims of the early retirement age policy.
Speaking during a public consultation on municipal council elections and the retirement age of municipal council officers at the Suva Civic Centre yesterday, he said he had a housing loan which was not paid off when he retired at the age of 55.
“I am a victim of the first lot of civil servants who were told to pack up and move out in 2009,” Mr McKenzie said.
“I also had friends who have passed away. They had bills to pay, they had housing loans to pay off.
“I had to go and find employment overseas for three years. For what? To pay off my housing loans, the loans that I took before retirement.
“If I had retired at the age of 60, I would have paid it off.”
He also highlighted the importance of retaining skilled people in the country.
“I have done my own personal research in my area. We find that a lot of skilled people are leaving. Not only the qualified people who are leaving, we find drivers, we find waitresses, we find people of different skills leaving this country.
“Now, if we allow this to happen in our municipality, you will find all these skilled people leaving us.
“One of the examples is garbage collectors. When I was in New Zealand for three years, I took up teaching down there, the garbage collectors there were collecting very good salaries.
“If these guys from here start leaving, who are we going to be left with? “And then, we have the skilled workers from the garages, the mechanics, they are going.”
Mr McKenzie said he was glad that the retirement age of municipal council officers would revert to 60.
“I am glad that we are bringing back this retirement age from 55 to 60 before it’s too late, and we realise that it’s too late that all our workers who are being put off at the age of 55 and we leave this gap of council workers.
“Whatever level they’re in, from the bottom right up to the top level, we need these people to remain here because they’re looking at the services in our council.” Source: The Fiji Times
Speaking during a public consultation on municipal council elections and the retirement age of municipal council officers at the Suva Civic Centre yesterday, he said he had a housing loan which was not paid off when he retired at the age of 55.
“I am a victim of the first lot of civil servants who were told to pack up and move out in 2009,” Mr McKenzie said.
“I also had friends who have passed away. They had bills to pay, they had housing loans to pay off.
“I had to go and find employment overseas for three years. For what? To pay off my housing loans, the loans that I took before retirement.
“If I had retired at the age of 60, I would have paid it off.”
He also highlighted the importance of retaining skilled people in the country.
“I have done my own personal research in my area. We find that a lot of skilled people are leaving. Not only the qualified people who are leaving, we find drivers, we find waitresses, we find people of different skills leaving this country.
“Now, if we allow this to happen in our municipality, you will find all these skilled people leaving us.
“One of the examples is garbage collectors. When I was in New Zealand for three years, I took up teaching down there, the garbage collectors there were collecting very good salaries.
“If these guys from here start leaving, who are we going to be left with? “And then, we have the skilled workers from the garages, the mechanics, they are going.”
Mr McKenzie said he was glad that the retirement age of municipal council officers would revert to 60.
“I am glad that we are bringing back this retirement age from 55 to 60 before it’s too late, and we realise that it’s too late that all our workers who are being put off at the age of 55 and we leave this gap of council workers.
“Whatever level they’re in, from the bottom right up to the top level, we need these people to remain here because they’re looking at the services in our council.” Source: The Fiji Times
