Blow to Transnet pensioners

Johannesburg - A Transnet pensioner failed on Monday to have the Equality Court hear a class action dispute over limits on his pension fund's annual increases.

Gordon Thomson and Freedom Front Plus MP Willie Spies planned to argue in terms of the Equality Act that the Second Contribution Pension Fund that Thomson belongs to discriminates against him by fixing the annual increase at two percent.

The fund is also not registered with the Registrar of Pension Funds, so they don't have the same protection other pensions do.

At a hearing on Monday to determine whether the Equality Court could hear the case, presiding officer Arvin Chaitram ruled that while he sympathised with the pensioners and believed that something had to be done, the Equality Court was not the right place.

He agreed with a submission by Martin Brassey, for the ministries of public enterprises and finance, that the Equality Act deals with discrimination against characteristics that are embedded and unchangeable, like race or hair colour.

Brassey had argued that the Transnet pensioners were not in this position.

Brassey had also argued that referring the matter to the pension fund itself would not work as the board of trustees would have to recuse themselves as interested parties.

After Chaitram made his ruling, Spies told the pensioners who had arrived to listen to the directions hearing, that they had hoped that that would have been the most cost-effective way of resolving the dispute.

They would now develop another strategy and it could involve high court action.

Meanwhile, speaking on the sidelines of the proceedings, retired signals engineer Von Bekker said pensioners were trying to survive on payouts that have less than 40% of the buying power of 2000, when the limit rule was imposed.

- Sapa