The 48,000 disengaged staff of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) have decried the non-payment of their entitlements by the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) since their disengagement six years ago after the company was privatized.
Speaking with journalists on Sunday in Bauchi, spokesperson of the former staff, Hassan Musa Gar, said they have engaged the services of Emmanuel Okere law firm based in Abuja to pursue their entitlements.
According to him, since their sack, they never collected any benefits, adding that other unpaid entitlements owed to them include 7.5 per cent of Federal Government contribution of their pensions, arrears for personal/individual contributions for 16 months, 10 per cent equity share ‘as required by law’ and pre-retirement training allowances.
He lamented, however, that BPE has caused news to be published on newspapers last week insinuating that coordinators of the forum of the disengaged staff were scamming the former employees by collecting the sum of N1,000 from each person for verification.
Gar said the forum was not conducting any verification but was collecting signatures of the affected former workers of the company to enable them authorize the law firm to fight for their rights.
He said that the N1,000 being contributed was for logistics and facilitation fees for the legal action being taken against the BPE, pointing out that the PHCN trade union and other relevant stakeholders failed to fight for them.
