BPE to pay NITEL workers in two weeks
The BPE said it would pay former NITEL employees their pensions and gratuities by the end of the month.
The agreement to pay the entitlements was reached at a meeting held at the BPE headquarters in Abuja after several hours of protest by the disengaged workers.
The Chairman, Kaduna branch of the Senior Staff Association of Utility Statutory Corporate Government-owned Companies (SSAUSCGOC), Mr Elias Kazzah, said the new date was reached after hours of negotiation.
Kazzah told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in an interview that a committee had been set up to monitor the payment.
He said that members of the committee included representatives of BPE, ministries of finance, communication, labour, SSAUSCGOC and the Accountant-General of the Federation.
Kazzah said the BPE Director-General, Mrs Irene Chigbue, explained that the entitlements were delayed because of a shortfall of N10 billion in the total budget of N69 billion for the exercise.
He said the BPE had agreed to source the balance and pay the workers their five years pensions and gratuities,noting that an earlier meeting with the Ministry of Labour had considered an option of shares and bonds as balance.
Kazzah said the privatisation agency backed its suggestion of a new date for payment with documents of the various processes it had already gone through to release the money to NITEL workers.
He said the Kaduna branch of SSAUSCGOC had to intervene and mobilise disengaged workers for a protest because most of them were not being carried along in the process.
Kazzah said the Kaduna branch of SSAUSCGOC was working in tandem with the national body, pointing out that some officials of the national body were part of the protest and negotiations.
On the issue of EFCC probe of the accounts of some disengaged workers, Kazzah said it was routine for the Commission to probe all monetary transactions to ensure fairness and transparency.
Kazzah described the five-hour long protest as
a success, adding that most of the workers who participated in the protest came into Abuja from Ibadan, Port Harcourt, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Kwara, Zamfara and other states.