Business
Union Urges FG To Pay Retired Members
The Senior Staff
Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC) has advised the Federal Government to pay entitlements of electricity workers who retired during the privatisation process.
The President General of SSAEAC, Mr. Bede Opara gave the advice in an interview with newsmen in Lagos yesterday.
Opara said that the affected workers were those who retired during the negotiation on privatisation between the electricity unions and the government representatives between 2012 and 2013.
He said that the government ought to have paid their entitlements, but “nothing has been paid to the workers as their entitlement for serving their fatherland.”
According to him workers served the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria for many years before their retirement in 2012. “They were still in active service while the negotiation process was on between us and the government representatives, he said.
“Their interest was well represented during the negotiation, but the government has not paid this set of retired workers till now,” he said.
Opara said that the union appreciated government’s efforts at ensuring that those that had not collected their severance package got it on time.
“It is saddening to see these people languishing in poverty after serving their fatherland. “We understand that government is working hard to see that the remaining workers’ names that were omitted get their severance package,” he remarked and implore the government to settle these workers before they give up the ghost’.