Rodriguez waits for SWRHA pension

Former SWRHA employee John Rodriguez has expressed frustration with the authority’s delay in paying his monthly pension a year after he retired.

He said a recent meeting with the SWRHA CEO had failed to resolve the issue, and is now threatening to protest weekly.

Interviewed on Wednesday, Rodriguez said he had spent his entire working life at the San Fernando General Hospital, where he ended his career as an orthopaedic technician on February 21, 2018.

Rodriguez, from Siparia, said he had submitted his retirement documents some six months before his official retirement to facilitate the transition.

“I did everything so I wouldn’t get this kind of trouble. But as it is now I don’t know when I will be able to get any of my pensions.”

He said a favourite line of the SWRHA’s human resources department is: “It is in audit.”

“How long it will be in audit?”

He said other retirees were experiencing similar situations and cited a nurse who had retired over four years ago and is still waiting for her pension.

“We are at our wits' end. We don’t know what to do any more. Its like we might have to protest outside the HR department every week until they settle this issue.’

SWRHA CEO Keith McDonald could not be reached for comment.