Following the settlement reached between the Federal government and workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), about N170 billion is now ready to be disbursed to them by the Federal Government as gratuities and pension.
This was disclosed yesterday by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Power, Dr. Dere Awosika, while speaking at the second day of the 5th power summit organised by the ministry in Lagos.
She said that the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) was already working out total costs, adding that letters would be issued to the workers to forward details of their Retirement Savings Account (RSA) for onward transfers of their entitlements.
Labour leaders and representatives of the Federal Government had signed an agreement last Tuesday on how to pay pension and gratuities to the PHCN workers, after almost two years dispute due to the ongoing power sector reforms.
According to Awosika, training was being organised by the government for top officials of the successor companies on labour issues and modalities for winding up before hand over to the preferred bid.
“The senior officials are going to be trained to be equipped to provide needed leadership in the sector. It will equip them to be able to negotiate employment terms with the new owners. We need to have a consensus on the winding up date for hand over to the new owners,” she said.
Also in her presentation, former permanent Secretary in the labour ministry and a member of the Federal Government negotiation team with the labour unions, Dr Timi Agary, explained that the agreement reached last week provided that 20% of all accrued benefits are to be paid to the workers as gratuity while 25 per cent of all accrued benefit are to be paid as pension.
“Our laws provides for labour unionism. What we want is responsible unionism. I know the private sector is averse to unionism. Even as government, we will protect them,” she said.