‘Suffering’ Early Retirees From JCF Threaten Lawsuit

A group of police offi­cers, who opt­ed for ear­ly retire­ment from the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF), is now threat­en­ing legal action against the Government for out­stand­ing compensation.

The dis­grun­tled retirees said they are fac­ing severe hard­ship, that they are at a stage of des­per­a­tion after years of being told to “hold strain”, and that they will be tak­ing their grous­es to the Office of the Public Defender.

“Is more than 30 years of my life I served my coun­try, nev­er miss a day from work, and after all of that I made the deci­sion to retire from the JCF on the promise that if I took up the ear­ly retire­ment offer I would be ful­ly com­pen­sat­ed. Now almost two years have passed and still noth­ing has hap­pened,” a 57-year-old com­plainant told Jamaica Observer recently.

He, like the oth­er retirees quot­ed for this sto­ry, asked not to be named or pho­tographed for fear of retribution.

“My life has now fall­en into sham­bles,” the frail-look­ing man added, with tears freely flowing.

He showed a doc­u­ment from a finan­cial insti­tu­tion warn­ing that his house would be placed on auc­tion with­in a few days if he did not make out­stand­ing payments.

According to anoth­er, who said he retired after 35 years of ser­vice, his daugh­ter is in need of life-sav­ing surgery which he’s not able to afford.

“I don’t know where to turn. As a big man I cry so much time,” he said. “I can’t cry anymore.”

A 59-year-old retiree said his case was so dire he could no longer find basic items such as food.

“I cred­it from the shops in my area so much, promis­ing them that I would get my pen­sion,” he said. “I am now afraid to go back home to face this embar­rass­ing sit­u­a­tion.” He too served in the JCF for over 30 years.

“It hard to see me spend all my life serv­ing a cause, risk­ing life and limb to serve and pro­tect; and what do we get?” he said before break­ing down.

He claimed that many of his for­mer col­leagues died wait­ing on the promised payment.

To make mat­ters worse, the retirees said, they have received reports that some who were late appli­cants to the ear­ly retire­ment incen­tive pro­gramme have been receiv­ing pay­ments ahead of them.

However, Lucius Thomas, the for­mer com­mis­sion­er of police — who heads the wel­fare com­mit­tee review­ing, among oth­er things, the pen­sion of retired police­men and women — has sought to clar­i­fy the issue.

Read more here : ‘Suffering’ ear­ly retirees from JCF threat­en lawsuit