Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Chairman of the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), the Hon. Fred Mitchell responded to criticism from the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. Michael Pintard about the rehiring of retirees in the public service.

In his statement Pintard lamented about lost opportunities for young people and retirees receiving salaries and pensions. Mitchell said of Pintard’s statement, “when you ready what he says last night, essentially he’s saying he is going to fire all those police officers when he comes to office which is an extraordinary promise to make for a man who is the leader of the opposition. That’s the issue, we want to frame this as what it is and not all the propaganda that’s going on about the place.”

Former Attorney General and current Minister of Immigration and National Insurance previously wrote an opinion that a person’s pension cannot be taken away if they return to service because they earned it. Mitchell said, “since 2021, against the backdrop of virtually no hiring by the FNM while they were in office and letting go 2500 people from the public service. The PLP has hired 2000 people under the age of 35. So it is clear that the service is growing and it is growing with young people.”

He added, “what is happening is unless you hire people beyond the retirement age you have a problem filling jobs, job vacancies. Those are the facts. People are having less than replacement level children. You see it happening with the changes that have to come with National Insurance, the changes that have to come with the health system with dealing with older people, all of those things are telling us our country is changing. And that is why we’re in the position we’re in, not because we want to but because we have to.”

According to information released by the Minister of Labour and the Public Service more than half of the re-engaged workers were police officers.