Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Energy   >   8,000 PHCN workers yet to get severance benefits

8,000 PHCN workers yet to get severance benefits

By on January 21, 2015

Fourteen months after the Federal Government privatised the power sector, about 8,000 employees of the defunct successor companies of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria have not been paid the severance benefits.

Some of the affected workers staged a protest at the headquarters of the PHCN in Abuja on Monday after they were allegedly issued a notice to quit the building by the Federal Ministry of Power.

Our correspondent gathered that the building was developed by the defunct PHCN, but the workers insisted that since their severance packages and other entitlements had not been cleared, it would be wrong to liquidate the firm’s properties based on agreements reached with labour unions in the sector.

The Chairman, National Union of Electricity Employees, Abuja, Mr. Wisdom Nwachukwu, told our correspondent that it was wrong for the government to ask the workers of the Transmission Company of Nigeria currently occupying the defunct PHCN headquarters to vacate the building when issues of their severance had not been settled.

He said, “The Federal Ministry of Power came and gave the TCN people a quit notice and they (ministry) have mounted their signpost claiming ownership of the place for now. When you look at it from the real perspective, issues of liquidation have not come up.

“It is only when the PHCN has fully been liquidated that they can come and lay claim to the building. And even if somebody will lay claim to the building, it is not the ministry because they already have a place allocated to them for their offices.

“If anybody should take over the building, it should be NELMCO; and according to the agreement we signed with them long ago, there are issues of severance; about 8,000 workers have not been paid their severance package.”

When probed further by our correspondent if the workers had not received their entitlements since November 2013, he replied, “I’m telling you; up till now and as we are talking, they have not!

“And it is not as if this money is not there. The money is there but the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Bureau of Public Enterprises are trading with the money. Instead of the ministry to make sure these people are paid, they are not doing so but what they are after is to come and take over our building.”

Asked if he was sure considering the fact that the BPE had last year stated that about N500bn was spent in settling the workers, Nwachukwu said the government actually released the money but it was difficult for the workers to get the funds.

He said, “Before some of us could get it around July/August last year, it was war. They created some form of artificial problems like the issue of biometric capturing and others. But they did biometric capturing for up to five times. So why will they keep saying biometric capturing is still a problem even up till now?”

Our correspondent gathered that the ministry was working out plans to merge the TCN with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

However, NERC, it was learnt, was not willing to accommodate the TCN workers as it did not make plans for them when putting up the structure.

The Special Assistant to the Minister of Power on Media, Kande Daniel, told our correspondent that the claims by the workers were false.

She said, “I can assure you that the information is wrong and misleading. Assoon as the President approved the ministry’s movement to the PHCN building, TCN was notified in writing to co-occupy with the ministry pending when it would get a new place.

“It is untrue that 8,000 workers have not been paid. I will get documents on this and the workers’ settlement issue this week.”

 

[Punch]