BPE clears 40,093 PHCN workers for terminal benefits
Director General, Bureau of Public Enterprises, Benjamin Ezra Dikki
A
total of 40,093 workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have
been cleared to receive their terminal benefits preparatory to the
handover of 14 PHCN successor companies to private sector investors.
The Director-General, Bureau of Public
Enterprises, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said this in a statement made available
to our correspondent in Abuja on Sunday by the agency’s Head, Public
Communications, Mr. Chigbo Anichebe.
Dikki also stated that the privatisation
agency had remitted N342.8bn to the Office of the Accountant General of
the Federation for the payment of the workers’ entitlements.
The cleared workers, whose names have
also been forwarded to the AG’s office, represent 84 per cent of the
workers of the company numbering about 47,000.
Dikki said the schedules of payment,
which were transferred to the OAGF by the BPE in six batches, cut across
workers at the PHCN headquarters, the generation companies,
distribution companies and the Transmission Company of Nigeria.
According to him, the OAGF has confirmed the payment of three schedules, totalling 26,899 persons.
He said, “The payment covers the severance benefits and Retirement Savings Accounts components.”
The DG said the OAGF had given an
assurance that by next week, another two batches (four and five),
totalling 11,716 workers would be paid their entitlements.
On union dues, the BPE boss said that
the OAGF had confirmed the remittance of N3bn to the two PHCN unions –
the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies and
National Union of Electricity Employees, deducted from the PHCN workers’
benefits.
Dikki said the Federal Government had demonstrated a great commitment to resolving labour issues in the power sector.
Apart from committing the entire
proceeds realised from the sale of power assets to the payment of the
workers’ terminal benefits, the government had, at the initial stage of
the transaction, released N57bn to take care of the workers’ pension, he
said.
He added that all the benefits came
after the government had increased the workers’ salaries by 50 per cent
and regularised the employment of some of the casual workers.
