Workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have said that the N384bn approved by the Federal Government for the payment of their severance benefits will not be sufficient to pay the 50,000 employees of the power firm.
The workers allege that 17,000 employees of the firm were not captured in the approved sum, adding that the actual amount to fully offset the workers entitlement was in excess of N500bn.
The Secretary-General, Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees, Mr. Joe Ajaero, told our correspondent in an interview on Thursday that the unions never agreed with the government to the sum announced on Wednesday by the Minister of Labour, Mr. Emeka Wogu.
Asked if the N384bn was the actual sum meant to settle the workers, Ajaero said, “How can it be the actual calculation who calculated it? Maybe what they approved was for the people they sacked in year 2000 and not for this dispensation we are in.
Or maybe they want to pay us bonus, because nobody met with them, nobody discussed with them and so they can’t just bring the sum and say we should work on it.
“We have been talking of the technical and implementation committees to work out the entitlement and we are yet to work out things before somebody just comes out and mentions a figure.”
He said the workers met with the government recently and the parties agreed on the different percentages that would be paid workers, stressing that “all of them (government) have copies of the agreement and the agreement did not talk in naira terms.”
According to him, a committee was set aside to look at the financial implications and to check the total from various the states, adding, “Which other meeting did they have with us since that agreement was signed?”
Ajaero said the problem could only be resolved by government within the period they want it settled.
He added, “They appointed Alexandra Forbes, which you reported, and the firm went with our people to do the actuarial valuation. When they got there, they got this figure of N384bn. But we discovered that the figure was for 33,000 workers, while we have about 50,000 workers.
“And then some people were demoted and their salaries were reduced by two grades. And when we brought this issue up, the BPE and Forbes apologised and said they were going back to correct their data.
“So based on that, a form was introduced for people to fill their actual entries and whatever and that form has not been collated and somebody went ahead to announce N384bn, cutting out over 15,000 workers and you are telling me they have resolved the problem. I doubt if this is true.”