Business Briefs
–
BENJAMIN Ezra Dikki, director general of the Bureau of Public enterprises, BPE, has informed members of the National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria, NUEE, that 46,744 out of the 47,913 bonafide staff, representing 98 percent of the workforce of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, have so far been paid their entitlements amounting to N373, 170, 291,200.38.
Addressing members of the Union led by Mansur Musa, national president, who came to the Bureau’s office in Abuja on Thursday, May 21, to protest the non-payment of severance benefits to some of their members, Dikki said that only 1,169 of the 47,913 workers of the defunct PHCN were yet to be paid.
He said the outstanding number included workers that had exited before the severance payment commenced; those being processed for validation; and those yet to be identified by PHCN as bonafide workers and thus not verified.
The director general further informed the NUEE members that 2,791 retired staff of the PHCN representing 65 percent of the retirees had been paid N16, 414,926,902.38 with an outstanding number of 1,516 retirees.
According to him, the number is made up of those who have so far failed to turn up for verification; were still undergoing further verification and the next of kin of deceased staff that have so far not been able to produce the letters of administration.
Dikki said for the active staff the number of beneficiaries was processed in 30 batches while for the retirees, it was in 11 batches. He appealed to the over 1,000 ex-workers of the PHCN that had not presented themselves for verification to come forward for the exercise as the government would not pay any one that had not been verified.
On the Next of Kin, NOKs, of the deceased staff of the PHCN, he urged the union officials to assist those who were yet to get the appropriate court papers for payment, to obtain them for a seamless processing of their entitlements. Dikki told the union members that many government agencies were involved in the payment of their entitlements which required such agencies applying their processes in executing the task. He therefore appealed for understanding from them.
He assured the union that to quicken the payment to those who were yet to benefit, a committee between the union and BPE would be set up to sort out the issues
Earlier, Musa had decried the non-payment of the severance benefits to some of the members which had brought untold hardship to them, according to a statement signed by Alex Okoh, head, Public Communications and made available to Realnews.
— Jun 1, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
|
Tags: Alex Okoh Benjamin Ezra Dikki BPE Bureau of Public Enterprises Mansur Musa National Union of Electricity Employees of Nigeria NUEE PHCN Power Holding Company of Nigeria Realnews
