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Pensions Bill wins approval

Curtis Dickinson, the Minister of Finance (File photograph)

Pensions legislation that got turned away from the House of Assembly after the Opposition faulted its wording was approved on Friday after a redraft.The Bill, brought to the House last month by Wayne Furbert, the Minister for the Cabinet Office, allows employers and staff to temporarily suspend 2 per cent or their national pension scheme payments over a two-year period.It was sent back to the drawing board after Trevor Moniz, a One Bermuda Alliance MP, flagged up wording that seemed to permit bosses to postpone payments over an employee’s objections.Curtis Dickinson, the Minister of Finance, brought a new version specifying that the suspensions could only be carried out with the agreement of the employer and the member of staff.However, Scott Pearman, the shadow legal affairs minister, said there was still ambiguity to the Bill.Mr Pearman said that cutting a 5 per cent pension contribution by 2 per cent was technically a 40 per cent reduction of the payment.He added: “Could we not simply make it two out of five in the Bill?”Mr Dickinson said: “We talked to the drafters about this, and their preference was that we leave the wording as it was in the document.”