24th July, 2012
Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) workers who were retrenched in 1991 have turned down N195.78 million benefits from the management.
They claimed that the benefits were not in line with court judgment on the matter.
One of the affected workers, Mr. Andrew Okon was quoted as saying that the benefit which the NPA management wanted to pay was not in compliance with the court judgment as he insisted on full gratuity for those who served for five years before the retrenchment, while those who served more than 10 years should get pension and redundancy benefits.
He said the workers had earlier petitioned the Attorney–General of the Federation, the Senate and the Presidency when NPA insisted on using the 1991 retrenchment guidelines for payment.
According to him, the workers have waited for 21 years to be paid their benefits. “We have suffered and about 500 out of 3,000 of us have died due to frustration.
“Some of us have been ejected from their homes, while many cannot afford their children’s school fees. We were paid one month in lieu of notice, instead of three months when we were retrenched,” he said.
Reacting to the development, NPA’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Chief Michael Ajayi, told NAN that NPA would pay the workers on the basis of the 1991 retrenchment guidelines.
According to Ajayi, NPA is a law-abiding public institution bound by law and will never disobey the judgment of a court.
“This matter has been on for a very long time, leading to litigations and counter litigations. The problem is that of ignorance or the refusal to understand the rules.
“Their retrenchment in 1991 arose from a public policy which focused on the restructuring of public parastatals,” he said.
Ajayi said that the fundamental issue at stake was the settlement of disengagement benefits based on the 1991 and 1992 circulars.
The NPA spokesman said that he wondered why the workers wanted their benefits to be calculated based on the 1992 circular for retrenched workers, whereas they were retrenched in May 1991.
He said that it was wrong for the workers to insist on being paid based on a circular that was not in existence at the time they were retrenched.
Ajayi pleaded with the workers to collect their benefits and not breach the peace as they had threatened.
The management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) had few days ago announced that it had concluded arrangements to pay N195.7million as the Annuity to the last batch of its retired workers. The amount represents the final payment of all claims due to the 1991 retrenched workers.
Their retrenchment benefits were based on the current inflation rate using the annuity formula over a 20-year period (1991-2011), which was 8.23091 per cent as provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The decision by the Nigerian Ports Authority to review the payment upwards was based on compassionate grounds as clearly conveyed to the representatives of the retrenched workers, bearing in mind the interval between the first payment and current payment.
Consequently, forms containing the list of the ex-employees have been forwarded to their representatives to enable them furnish their new bank details (NUBAN) for payment in line with the e-payment policy of the Federal Government.
The NPA management had also carried out audit exercise in order to verify and identify the affected employees and to compute the difference between the basic and total emolument of the retrenched employees in June 1991.