BEIRUT:
The Order of Nurses has launched a pension fund and social aid program designed
to assist its members after retirement or those living with disability.
Nurses,
of whom over 9,400 are members of the order, currently receive a lump sum upon
retirement at 64, equal to one month’s salary for every year worked, in line
with the law.
With
the new fund, which will become active in early 2012, members can pay a minimum
of $100 per year into a fund, and this figure will increase gradually with
inflation. A nurse paying $100 annually into an account for 10 years from 2012
would receive $122 every month upon retirement in 2023.
The
Order’s president, Claire Zablit, explained the need for the creation of the
fund.
“What
they receive now is not enough. We’ve been working on the idea for a few years
now as we knew we had to construct a new way to help them. Their salary is not
sufficiently high enough to allow them to save during their working years,” she
said. Nurses earn around $1,000 per month.
The
Order is currently in talks with the government over the establishment of a
source of regular income for the fund, asides from those contributions made by
members, as with the pension fund for the Order of Physicians, which benefits
from a percentage of medicine importation costs.
The
proposal put forth to government, and preliminarily agreed to by the Finance
Ministry, according to Zablit, would see LL2,000 from each medical bill go
toward the Order of Nurses’ pension fund.
“It’s
such a tiny amount, but combined, the sum would make so much difference to the
lives of retired nurses,” she added. “I was with the parliamentary health
subcommittee yesterday and all the members have agreed to the idea,” Zablit
told The Daily Star Thursday. The proposal will soon go to the full Parliament
for a vote.
In terms of disabled
nurses, financial help would be decided on a case by case basis.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Local-News/2011/Dec-16/157036-order-of-nurses-launches-social-aid-program-and-pension-fund.ashx#axzz1giP8wnct
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