PHCN Severance Package Should Be On 2012 Salary Structure - SSAEAC

Mr Bede Opara, President General, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), on Tuesday said that PHCN workers’ severance package should be based on their 2012 salary scale.

Opara said that it would be wrong to base the severance package of the workers on the 2010 salary structure.

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, that the Federal Government should honour a recommendation that the workers’ payoff should be on current salary structure.

NAN recalls that the Federal Government set up an Implementation Committee on March 19 to recommend appropriate terminal benefits of the workers.

The committee is headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Power Ministry, Mr Godknows Igali.

“It will be wrong to use the 2010 salary structure which was operational then to pay off any worker in 2013.

“Since the committee, I believe, has been able to determine the correct number of PHCN workers affected by the mass retrenchment, the staff must get their dues.

“The measures to be adopted to pay the workers must not deviate from what is proper”, he said.

‘Scrapping JAMB, NECO will lead to job loss’

Kwara State Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mr Farouk Akanbi, has described Federal Government’s decision to streamline JAMB and NECO to a plan that will lead to massive job loss in the country.

Akanbi, who made this known an interactive section with an online media on Friday that the decision have both positive and negative implications if implemented.

According to him, one of the most negative implications is the thousands of jobs that may be lost as a result of the cancellation of the two examination bodies.

“If JAMB and NECO is scrapped, what will be the fate of the workers of these organisations that are in all the 36 states of the country?” he asked.

He advised that government should not rush to streamline the examination bodies without first considering the fate of the workers.

The NLC chairman also said that a lot of things should be put in place before government entrust the responsibility of conducting examinations solely on WAEC.

Akanbi, who is also NUT Chairman in the state, noted that WAEC did not belong to Nigeria alone as it was a body jointly owned by some West African countries.

He noted that it was a good move for Federal Government to streamline the number of agencies in the country.

The NLC chairman, however, said such move should start from the Presidency and National Assembly, as the two bodies took the lion share of the nation’s budget recurrent expenditure.

“We should not just scrap JAMB and NECO. We should request National Assembly to maintain fiscal discipline,” Akanbi said.

He said that reducing the cost of governance should not be done in isolation, but across board.

According to him, Nigerian workers must not be made to suffer government’s decision to reduce cost in governance.

Labour suspends march-protest

KAYODE ADELOWOKAN

The Nigeria labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) has announced the suspension of the planned work stoppage/protest march scheduled to take place in Lagos and Abuja respectively.

This is contained in a Communique signed by NLC president, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar and the congress’ acting general secretary, Comrade Chris Uyot at the end of the emergency meeting of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) held on Tuesday at the Labour House, Abuja.

The Communique said, “Resume without warning the suspended action if by the end of April or there about, the Federal Government fails to implement all it has promised to do”.

The Congress said that the decision is in consideration of the fact that the Federal Government has sufficiently met with the demands of the Congress and National Union of Pensioners (NUP), including the setting up of a joint Committee headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation to harmonise payments as well as resolve sundry matters connected with pension payment and administration of pension funds.

The Federal Government at a at the joint meeting with the Congress and the Trade Union Congress on Monday night, April 8, 2013, among other things discussed accepted to restore the check-off dues of the NUP which had been withheld for one year. “Order the withdrawal from court, the case between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP) in respect of the pension payment/matters”.

“Set up a joint Committee of Labour and Government, headed by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to resolve all issues pertaining to: Immediate payment of all pension arrears to deserving pensioners; Re-visitation/resumption of inconclusive verification exercises of 2010/2011 that left scores of pensioners off the payroll; The review of pension payment to reflect 53.4% wage increase to workers in 2010 and the payment of the N18, 000 minimum wage. Perfect and fast-track the process of pension payment”.

The Communique therefore mandated that the committee has till the end of April or first week of May to complete its work.

Congress however commended its workers and civil society allies for promptly mobilizing for the planned work stoppage/protest march.