FG owes Retired Electricity Workers N25b

Nigeria Union of Pensioners has demanded the payment of N25.3 billion pension arrears being owed retired electricity workers by the Federal Government. The arrears is made up of N14.5b harmonization, N7.5b monetization, N3b for the year 2000 retirees, and N972 million rebate allowance.

Disclosing this at the end of a meeting in Abuja on Tuesday, the Chairman, All Sectorial Units, and Parastatals of the NUP, Mr Alex Abu, said only 30% of the power sector retirees had received the harmonized pension.

On the monetization arrears, Abu explained that since the monetization policy was approved in 2009, it was not factored into the final emoluments of workers who retired between 2003 and 2009.

He also said, about 4,000 employees were restructured and they were not served letters terminating their appointments until after 15 days, precisely on the 15th of August. They worked extra 15 days and are supposed to have been paid for the 15 days but were not.

The rules and regulations of Power Holding Company of Nigeria as at the time of termination stipulates that any employee retired prematurely, in this case, restructuring, shall be awarded 10% on both gratuity and pension of affected employees. The unpaid 15 extra working days and the non-inclusion of 10% award in the gratuities and pensions of the 4,000 restructured employees make up the N3b outstanding payment.