FOLLOWING the confrontation between the Federal Government and workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) over severance pay, the Federal Government, on Monday, described the workers as outlaws who were bent on getting what did not belong to them.
This is coming as it was revealed that the lowest cadre staff of the company could get as much as N8 million severance pay while the highest cadre staff could take home about N38 million upon disengagment from the company.

This is according to the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, who was at the State House, Abuja, on Monday in continuation of the ministerial briefing of President Goodluck Jonathan on the performance of the 2012 budget and the outlook for 2013.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting with the president, Professor Nnaji disclosed that the ministry had so far received about N21.5 billion of its capital budget of N75.4 billion out of which it had used N11.4 billion, representing 52.9 per cent.

Professor Nnaji, while dismissing claims that government was planning to pay outgoing PHCN staff the sum of N85,000 across board, noted that too much falsehood had been peddled about government's position on the matter.

He accused the workers' union of deliberately distorting facts over their entitlements, promising to make all the facts available to the public by next week.

His words: "That has to do with how much they are going to take. They say it is N85,000. I cannot understand how they could say that. Many of the people who are junior officers, some of them with WASC qualification are going to go home with N8 million.

"We just do not want to publish tally sheet. Somebody who is in the position of an Assistant General Manager, could go home with N28 million. What we are saying is that there is a range.

"The highest officer could go home with N38 mllion. So, anybody who is telling you N85,000 has a different mission."

The minister explained the area of disagreement with the workers, saying it was an attempt to bring about violation of existing laws.

He blamed the union for deducting money from workers' salaries on the pretext of paying it into their retirement account but which it never did.

According to him, "the area of difference is the following: the union wants to be paid 25 per cent of the benefit at the point of severance. That was an old policy before the 2004 Pension Reform Act. After the Act, they carried on with the 25 per cent. They collected this money without remitting the money into the account. It was just written on paper.

"So, the workers had nothing in their account. That is something we have now set up a panel to investigate and we have set up a panel headed by a former Auditor-General of the Federation.

"It amounts to fraud to have that kind of thing going on.

"What government has decided to do is that since no money was paid into the account from 2004 to June this year, government will pay what is in the law. Government will pay its own component, that is the PHCN component of it.

"Workers were supposed to contribute 7.5 per cent and PHCN 7.5 per cent but since PHCN did not pay, government will pay it. This makes 15 per cent. But the union is saying that they would like government to pay 25 per cent.

"Every worker out there, be it private or public, follows the Pension Act and how on earth would you say you do not want to obey the law of this nation? That is the threat.

"We have said let us give you the tally sheet. They said no. Meanwhile, they go and talk about N85,000. This is a country of rules but they went and attacked an official of PHCN, dragged her out and stripped her because the woman holds the position of Acting General Manager (Human Resources).

"Unions do not act this way. PHCN unions are constituting themselves into outlaws. It is not right," he declared.

On the 2012 budget, the minister recalled that the sum of N75.5 billion was initially budgeted while the National Assembly raised it to N78 billion to accommodate constituency projects.

He explained that out of the N75.4 billion budgeted for capital project, N21.5 billion had been released and N11.4 billion had so far been expended, representing 52.9 per cent.


source http://tribune.com.ng/index.php/front-page-news/45869-p-r-i-v-a-t-i-s-a-t-i-o-n-phcn-workers-to-get-jumbo-severance-pay-general-managers-n38m-assistant-general-managers-n28m-junior-staff-wasc-holders-n8m-and-above-their-unions-are-outlaws-fg-