Leadership (Abuja)
21 September 2008
The Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) says it has paid more than N150bn as salary arrears and terminal benefits to workers disengaged in privatised public enterprises from 2000 to date.
The director-general, Mrs Irene Chigbue, made the announcement yesterday in Calabar, Cross River State, at a workshop organised by the bureau for workers in the South-South states.
She said the terminal benefits paid to the workers during the period stood at N149.8bn, while N675.3m was paid as salary arrears.
Chigbue said the disengaged workers were paid in accordance with the conditions of service of the affected organisations and negotiations by labour unions.
The director-general, who was represented by the director of special duties, Mr Omotayo Ayido, however, said workers in 14 privatised enterprises benefited from the exercise.
She said disengaged workers of the Nigerian Telecommunications Limited (NITEL) and the Nigerian Mobile Telecommunications Limited (Mtel) were paid the highest amount of N60bn as terminal benefits.
Nigeria Airways workers, she added, followed with N34.48bn; Nigerian Ports Authority, N31bn; NAFCON, N8.5bn; Delta Steel Company, N5.1bn and NICON, N3.8bn.
Chigbue said apart from monetary entitlements, some of the workers became landlords following the privatisation programme.
"For example, in Delta Steel Company, more than 4,428 staff were successful in securing ownership of their houses through pension-for-house swap option adopted by the BPE in privatising the company," she added.
The director-general said a similar arrangement was being worked out for 300 workers affected by the privatisation of the Nigeria Mining Corporation, Jos.
She expressed regret that shares reserved for workers in the privatised companies remained unpaid by the workers.
Chigbue listed 14 companies where reserved shares for workers had yet to be claimed to include NAHCO, Niger Dock, Capital Hotel , Nigeria Re-Insurance, NICON Hilton Hotel, NICON Insurance and Eleme Petrochemicals.
Others are Abuja International Hotel, ANAMMCO, Savannah Sugar Company, Delta Steel Company, NITEL/Mtel, FSFC, Kaduna and EMCON.
She urged labour leaders to muster necessary resources to enable workers to pay for the reserved shares, which were still in BPE's custody.
Meanwhile, the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) Malam Abduwaheed Umar, has called for a privatisation exercise that would address national issues to improve the lives of Nigerians.
He also called for transparency in all BPE's transactions to satisfy genuine national concern, rather than selfish interests.
Umar urged the federal government to prosecute the privatisation programme along with job creation and job retention, "instead of dumping workers just for the purpose of generating funds".(NAN)
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