FG Distributes Retirement Benefit Letters To PHCN Workers

The Federal Government has commenced the distribution of retirement benefit letters to employees of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria.

The Federal Ministry of Power said
the exercise, which started on Wednesday, was in line with its privatisation process.

The ministry, in a statement by the Special Adviser on Media to the Minister of Power, Mr. Ogbuagu Anikwe, said each letter was personally signed by the Managing Director/Chief Executive, PHCN, Mr. Hussein Labo.

It said the letters stipulated their pension and gratuity, among other benefits.

It said, “The management of the PHCN this morning (Wednesday) began distributing letters to each PHCN staff member, advising him or her on the retirement benefits, in view of the impending privatisation of 17 out of the 18 PHCN successor companies.
“The workers were to study the contents of every form and look out for critical issues like possible computational errors and then return them not later than August 10, 2012, with appropriate remarks to the PHCN management.”

The ministry said the computations showed that some PHCN executives would get as much as N38m as retirement benefit.

It argued that this figure contrasted with the N2m, which some union officials had claimed would be the maximum amount any PHCN employee would receive on retirement.

The statement added that the entire severance benefit, calculated at N80bn, would come from the government treasury.

This, it said, was because the PHCN management did not comply with the Pension Reform Act, which came into force on July 1, 2004, and which required every worker to contribute 7.5 per cent of his or her basic salary towards pension.

Meanwhile, the ministry has noted that the leadership of the National Union of Electricity Employees prevented some workers of the power firm from accepting the letters.

It said, “With letters of advice on retirement benefits now being distributed to each of the employees of the 17 PHCN successor companies and any Transmission Company of Nigeria staff members opting to retire now, the NUEE leadership has used force to prevent the employees from receiving the letters and knowing their true contents.”

SOURCE- PUNCH