Observation (CEACR) - adopted 1997, published 86th ILC session (1998)

Equality of Treatment (Social Security) Convention, 1962 (No. 118) - Suriname (Ratification: 1976)

Article 5, branch (g) (employment injury benefit), of the Convention. In reply to the Committee's previous comments that it has been making for a number of years concerning the need to repeal section 6(8) of Decree No. 145 of 1947, as amended, the Government states that this section does not restrict payment of pensions abroad but gives the opportunity to the beneficiaries to convert the periodical payments into a lump sum if they can prove to the head of the Labour Inspection that in a certain time they will leave the country. The Committee recalls in this respect that the said section 6(8) provides not for the payment of the pension abroad, but only for the possibility for a beneficiary to request the conversion of his employment injury pension into a lump sum if he transfers his residence abroad before the expiry of the three-year period from the date of the accident, during which the degree of disability is still subject to review by the competent Suriname authority, and that there is no provision in the legislation whereby the payment of the pension abroad is guaranteed to the beneficiary or his dependants after the expiry of this period. In this situation and taking into account that, under Article 5 of the Convention, employment injury pensions must be paid without restrictions where the beneficiary, whether a national of Suriname or of any State that has accepted the obligations of the Convention in respect of this branch, transfers his residence outside the territory of Suriname, the Committee would once again urge the Government to take all necessary measures in the very near future to bring its national law and practice into full conformity with this important provision of the Convention.

[The Government is asked to report in detail in 1999.]