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.

Pension operators laud PenCom’s plan on new offices

Operators in the Pension industry have applauded the National Pension Commission (PenCom) on its concluded plans to establish six zonal offices across the country.
The commission is said to have perfected plans to open offices in Gombe, Kano, Ilorin, Calabar and Akwa Ibom states.
Sources close to PenCom said the development is one of the strategies mapped out by the commission to deepen knowledge and awareness of pension benefit across the country.
According to the source, the commission would through the zonal offices educate people on the need and importance of pension and why it is necessary to save for old age.
According to the source, each zonal office will be in charge of pension activities in five states. Also it will
handle problems of workers and retirees within the zone and bring PenCom close to the people.
Commenting on the development, Kanu Mba, a pensioner with Universal Still Limited Lagos, said that the planned establishment of more branches by the commission would help bring pension matters closer to the people.
According to him; “This is the best thing that has ever happened to us. We don’t need to go to Abuja every time we have a problem”.
He said that the establishment of the zonal offices would help sensitise the public about pension, adding that a lot of pensioners were ignorant of what the law says about the contributory pension scheme.
Mba also called on the commission to persuade the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) to open more offices in all the states, adding that not all the PFAs in the country have branches in the 36 states of the federation.
He explained that the efforts of the commission must be complemented by the PFAs, adding that the more the branches, the more the awareness in the grassroots.
He however called on PenCom to publish names of employers who had registered under the contributory pension scheme but failed to remit the monthly contributions deducted from employees’ remuneration into their retirement savings accounts.
Meanwhile, a manager with Trustfund Pensions, Mika Adah, was of the opinion that the move by the commission was a welcome development in the pension industry.
He said that the commission had been employing different approaches, including public enlightenment, to entice employers to embrace voluntary compliance, media campaign and collaboration with regulatory and professional bodies.
Also, he assured the public that the commission would recover the unremitted funds from the defaulters with interest as penalty through legal means.
The Pension Reform Act 2004 was established by law and the law states that there shall be established for any employment in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a Contributory Pension Scheme (in this Act referred to as “the Scheme”) for payment of retirement benefits of employees to whom the Scheme applies ‘under this Act.
Subject to Section 8 of this Act, the Scheme shall apply to all employees in the Public Service of the Federation, Federal Capital Territory and the Private Sector in the case of the Public Sector, who are in employment; and in the case of the Private Sector, who are in the employ of an organisation, in which there are five or more employees.