Union laments non-payment of ex-PHCN workers’ entitlement

He told our correspondent that the fact that all the workers of the former power company have not received their pay is a manifestation that the government was not sincere about the plight of these workers.He said a review of the facts surrounding the payments shows that a sub-committee is in charge of processing the […]

He told our correspondent that the fact that all the workers of the former power company have not received their pay is a manifestation that the government was not sincere about the plight of these workers.
He said a review of the facts surrounding the payments shows that a sub-committee is in charge of processing the benefiting staff which in a very torturous process.
According to him, the  Director General of the Bureau of Public Enterprises(BPE) is aware that the sub-committee had been starved of funds delayed by his office thereby slowing the work down and should not have pre-empted the outcome of the work.
He said in its last meeting of May 6, 2014 the sub-committee reviewed progress of the assignment and confirmed that: Projected number of PHCN staff are 47,913, total verified staff of PHCN  as at May 6, 2014 are 46,308 while the number of staff paid severance/cash component of benefits 43,342.
The progress report also showed that the number of staff with outstanding severance payments is 2, 966, and outstanding staff awaiting verification are 1, 605, while the total number of staff paid pension component are 43,228.
Also the number of staff with outstanding pension payment  are 3, 080, the number of retired/dead staff awaiting benefits before April 30, 2013 stood at 4,146, while number of verified retirees/next of kin for payment as at May 6, 2014, 3, 233, and the number awaiting verification is 913.
He said the summary of the above data is that as at May 6, 2014, 2,966 of staff were not paid the severance/cash benefits, 3,233 verified retired and relatives of dead staff were yet to receive their benefits .
Comrade Bede Opara further said, there are still 1,605 unverified staff and 913 retirees /dead staff next of kin who have waited for upwards of 10 years in some cases.
Engr Benjamin Dikki, Director-General of BPE had in a recent press brief in Lagos said it was not true that his agency is deliberately stifling the process of paying the ex-workers of PHCN.