Federal Govt agrees to pay off 54,000 PHCN workers

All workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, totalling about 50,000 and 4000 unregularised staff will be paid off as part of the full privatisation of PHCN’s assets, the Federal Government and organised labour have agreed.

The implication of this is that PHCN workers that will be absorbed by new owners will have a new condition of service in line with agreement with Labour.

It was gathered that government needs over N400 billion as against less than N200 billion earlier earmarked by it to settle the workers severance pay which terminated on June 1, 2012.

Similarly, the government has agreed that the total accrued gratuity as at June 30, 2012 shall be paid to active PHCN workers in accordance with the defined benefit scheme stipulated in PHCN 2010 conditions of service. This is a major u-turn on the part of government which had agreed that the Pension Reform Act, PRA, 2004, had abolished gratuity.

These were parts of the agreement reached, Tuesday night, after over eight months of protracted negotiations.

Payment of gratuity had been the crux of the unresolved labour issues that had pitched organised labour against government, stalling the privatisation of PHCN assets and government reform agenda in the power sector.