Business
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The implementation committee on the payment of severance package set up by the National Council on Privatisation pays a total of N373,170,291,200.38 to former staff of PHCN as their entitlements
THE National Council on Privatisation, NCP, has paid 46,744 out of the 47,913 bonafide staff, representing 98 percent of the workforce of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, their entitlements amounting to N373, 170, 291,200.38. The NCP commended the progress achieved by the implementation committee on the payment of the severance, pension and gratuity of the workers and retirees of PHCN and directed that it should handover to BPE all information and documents concerning outstanding active staff and pensioners verifications and payments. It also directed that the process of verification and payment of all the outstanding cases should continue until the final resolution of the exercise.
Briefing members of council, Benjamin Dikki, director general of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE, told members at its meeting held in the Presidential Villa on Thursday, April 16, that only 1,169 of the 47,913 workers of the defunct PHCN were yet to be paid. Out of the outstanding number, Dikki said it included workers that had exited before severance payment; those being processed for validation; and those yet to be identified by PHCN as bonafide workers, adding that the working group was looking into these cases to arrive at a final closure.
Also, the council noted 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 who have so far failed to turn up for verification or were still undergoing further verification or their next of kin have not been able to produce the necessary court papers.
It would be recalled that an implementation committee was constituted in March 2013 and given the mandate to implement the agreement reached with the Power Sector Labour Unions in December 2012. The objective was to facilitate the payment of the entitlements of all workers of PHCN and ensure that there are no encumbrances to the handover of the successor companies to the respective investors.
The NCP also noted the case of some PHCN workers in the diaspora, which the Committee couldn’t reach in the course of the assignment. Consequently, Council has directed that those staff based abroad should be encouraged to come to Nigeria for their verifications and payments, according to a statement issued April 22, by Chigbo Anichebe, head of Public Communications, BPE and made available to Realnews.
— May 4, 2015 @ 01:00 GMT
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Tags: Benjamin Dikki bonafide staff BPE Bureau of Public Enterprises Chigbo Anichebe National Council on Privatisation NCP PHCN PHCN Staff Power Holding Company of Nigeria Power Sector Labour Unions Realnews
