RIYADH, 2 September 2007 — The Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) entered into an agreement last week with the Social Security Board in the presence of Foreign Employment Promotion and Welfare Minister Keheliya Rambukwella to launch a pension scheme for the benefit of expatriate workers.
“The pension scheme will provide a monthly pension from the age of 60 until his or her death when the migrant worker had contributed to the scheme regularly,” SLBFE Chairman Kingsley Ranawaka told Arab News by telephone from Colombo.
Ranawaka said that if the beneficiary dies before the age of 80, the contributor’s spouse or dependant would benefit from the scheme.
He said that the new welfare scheme was being introduced in accordance with the vision of President Mahinda Rajapakse who had worked out a comprehensive program in his Mahinda Chintana (“Charter”) in recognition of the services rendered by the island’s overseas workers.
Ranawaka said the new scheme would help them to become economically stable during their retirement years.
“The country is directly responsible for the welfare of its expatriate workers whose contribution to the economy exceeds $1.3 billion annually, or 21 percent of the total foreign exchange earnings,” he said, adding that only the state could provide a pension scheme that can be strictly for the welfare of the working community without expecting a profit.
“For the sake of their families back home, migrant workers undergo untold hardships thousands of miles away from their homeland. The Foreign Employment Promotion Ministry in coordination with the Social Services Ministry formulated with great difficulty the pension scheme for these overseas contract workers.”
Explaining the mode of implementation of the program, Ranawaka said that initially all workers leaving Colombo for overseas employment from tomorrow would be registered under this scheme.
“They have to pay a minimum monthly premium of SR5 or a lump sum payment of SR600 to be entitled to a monthly pension of SR250 when they reach 60 years of age. According to the scheme, the worker will contribute only 40 percent toward the pension scheme, while the state will subsidize the remainder.”
This is only the minimum requirement. The monthly pension varies from person to person according to the volume of their monthly premium depending on the workers’ income.
For those currently working abroad, the chairman said that the SLBFE would make another announcement next week regarding arrangements to enable them to enroll for this scheme through Sri Lankan missions abroad.
