The reactivated Presidential Task Force on NITEL/MTEL had recommended immediate disengagement of all 3,389 current employees of the two telecommunications companies as a way one of the ways out of problems that has marred the proposed privatization of the organization.
The Task Force which submitted its report to Vice President Namadi Sambo on Tuesday morning however recommended that 445 of the disengaged staff should be immediately be re-engaged as transitional staff who will hand over to a new core investor in the two companies.
The Committee said this arrangement will reduce the monthly wage bill of the company from the current N695 to N115.5 million.
While presenting the report to the Vice President, the Chairman of the task force and the Minister of Labour, Chief Chukwuemeka Wogu, had restated the terms of reference of the task force to include addressing the issue of outstanding salaries and allowances owed NITEL/MTEL staff and determining the number of staff to be disengaged to reduce the wage liabilities of government as the enterprises were not operational.
He added that the Task Force also faced challenges which includes court judgments by an Abuja High Court prohibiting the employment of casual staff as it goes contrary to the condition of service, which therefore confers on them permanent and pensionable status.
According to him, the Bureau of Public Enterprises, BPE has already appealed the ruling. He said in carrying out its assignment, the Task Force considered two other scenarios.
These include the disengagement of all current employees of the company who are currently aged 45 and above and those that have served 25 years and above. If chosen, he said this option is capable of reducing the work force by 2,250, approximately 66 per cent of the staff and reduce monthly wage bill from N695 million to N187.6 million while maintaining the existing security arrangements.
The second option, he said, is to disengage all employees who are aged above 50 and employees that have served 35 years and above which will lead to a reduction in monthly wage bill of the organisations from N695 million to N313.8 million which also maintains the existing security arrangements.
“The task force after scrutiny recommended the adoption of the first scenario where all staff are exited and paid off their entitlementsâ€, he said.
The Minister therefore appealed to Government for the immediate release of the sum of N51.692 Billion to downsize and comply with court orders should they not be reversed. The Vice President, who noted the requests of the task force, observed that only recently a committee constituted by the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE) has recommended for the immediate sales of the company.
He assured that the Federal Government will be working on the sales of the company while exploring other revenue sources to address the problems enumerated by the task force as a matter of urgency.
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Mr. Donald, the way FG handled NITEL workers, I don’t think any reasonable worker will like to serve anything bearing the name of “Nigeria” again. 28months without salary is too much to think of. Within few weeks of INEC request, the FG has released 87.7billion because, it is in their favour, they never care to pay these workers eventhough, they die on daily basis, of hunger and sickness, their children can not go to school. This is to show us the type of leaders we have in Nigeria. They always think Nigerian treasury is only for them and their family.
Jonathan should remember that he has exhausted his streak of good luck. Providence, Constitution or any other power will not put the Presidency on his laps from 29th May 2011. Because Nigerians are gullible, the President using the ethnic and regional card want us to support him while he has not shown any indication that he is different from Abacha or Obasanjo. For a man who was a Vice Chairman, Chairman, Deputy Governor, Governor, Vice President, Acting President and now President yet cannot be identified with a single achievement shows the kind of imbecile some are dying to support. For a man who has had the singular honour of having being at the helms of affairs at the LGA, State, and National levels to be behaving like this should make all sane men to be sad. While maybe not, because he got to those positions by some serendipity, and he has found it very difficult to rise to the occasion. Jonathan lacks any discernible leadership qualities. Despite his vociferous allusions to the ideal of change, he has been unable to articulate that idea of change in an identifiable way. Instead, his plodding style of government has hardly moved from the tradition of “dedicated†committees on this and that.
Please pay these people now! You can’t begin to imagine the hardship families are facing. Nigeria is a failed state.
Chief Nwogu chukwuemeka is above 50 years and he is still in office. disengaging NITEL staffs will create more problems to these workers and their families.
That NITEL is not performing well is still the fault of Federal Government and NCC. the fund they are getting from the Private telecommunication operators, is it not enough to pay NITEL workers salaries?
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