Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 2015, published 105th ILC session (2016)

Seafarers' Pensions Convention, 1946 (No. 71) - Panama (Ratification: 1971)

Other comments on C071

Direct Request

2015
2011
1991

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Article 3(1) of the Convention. Pension scheme for seafarers. The Committee notes, with regard to the part of the pension paid by the defined benefit scheme, that the guaranteed replacement rate after 20 years is 60 per cent (3 per cent annual accrued rate), i.e. above the minimum accrued rate of 2 per cent established by Article 3(1)(a)(ii) of the Convention, even with the application of the reduction factor in the case of retirement at 60 years of age. Where the wage exceeds 500 balboas (PAB), it is, however, impossible to determine the pension’s replacement rate since that part of the pension is provided by the individual account system and is dependent on the return on investment. Noting that the Government soon intends to launch a process for the collection of information on the number of seafarers covered by the pension system, the Committee requests the Government also to collect and provide information on the average wages of seafarers affiliated to the system and also the average amounts of pensions paid by the system to insured persons who have made a total of 240 monthly contributions.

Article 3(2). Contribution of insured persons to the cost of pensions. The Committee notes that insured persons participate in the financing of pensions by means of contributions to the defined benefit scheme amounting to 9.25 per cent of the gross wage (for the first PAB500) and a premium of 8.16 per cent based on the remaining wage paid into an individual account within the defined benefit scheme. Employer contributions amount to 4.25 per cent of the gross wage in both schemes. Recalling that, under the terms of Article 3(2) of the Convention, seafarers collectively shall not contribute more than half the cost of the pensions payable under the scheme, the Committee requests the Government to indicate what proportion of the financing of pensions for the years covered by the report is constituted by the contributions paid by insured persons.