FG to Settle staff of defunct PHCN this January

The federal government has agreed to pay the  staff of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) their severance benefits on, or before the end of January 2014 as part of efforts put in place to resolve the lingering crisis, especially the 14 days ultimatum given to the federal government by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) in the power sector.

This was part of the agreement contained in a communiqué  signed by the president of NUEE, Comrade Mansur Musa, the assistant general secretary of NUEE, Comrade Olusegun Babatunde, the president of Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), Comrade Bede Opara,  the secretary general of SSAEAC, Comrade Abiodun Ogunsegha, the representative of director-general of Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), Mrs Omojola Martina, the permanent secretary, ministry of power, Dr Godknows Igali, among others while admitted casuals to be paid on, or before end of March 2014 as progressive payments to be tracked”.

“Workers who are being owned salary arrears and have not been severed will be paid by the federal government and should stay in position until they are paid,” it added.

Also the communiqué disclosed all pensions should be processed and payments should be effected accordingly, while the 7.5 per cent employers’ contribution for July 2012 to October 31, 2013 will be paid by the Federal Government.

“Payment of pension deductions from November 1, 2013 to date would be paid by the new operators into the workers’ RSA Account”, it claimed

It was also resolved that the BPE and Federal Ministry of Power to fast tract approval and payment of death benefits to beneficiaries within one month, while the complain of victimization of labour leaders to be handled by both in accordance with extant labour laws within January 2014.

The Ministry of Power and BPE was however  mandated to fund a workshop to be organized by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity for new investors, labour and other stakeholders as part of the efforts to harmonise industrial relations in the power sector Present at the meeting were the  Minister of Labour and Productivity, Emeka Wogu, the Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Dr. Igali, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Productivity Dr.  Illo, among others.

It would be recalled that workers of the defunct PHCN, on Monday, protested the delay in the payment of their severance benefits despite government insistence that most of them have been paid.

Chairman, National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), Abuja chapter, Wisdom Nwachukwu, who led the protest to the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company Limited, said the union discovered that the Abuja Central Area branch of Enterprise Bank was one of those delaying the final process of payment.

“We had a case where one or two of us threatened that we had learnt what they were doing and within a space of four hours, those two individuals were paid, that is to tell you that something is going wrong.

“We have other cases of people that have been paid with wrong account numbers, we gave them the real account details, they paid our people with these wrong account details of which the money wouldn’t go, and the money goes back to them.”

He explained that about 1900 workers are yet to receive payment, including PHCN security staff, and that more than 2000 disengaged staff had the same challenge.

Read more: http://leadership.ng/business/338046/fg-agrees-to-settle-phcn-workers-before-end-of-january