31st October
By Aaron Ukodie,IT.Telecom Editor, Lagos

The pruning, carried out by the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE), will smoothen the way for Transcorp to take over the first national carrier (FNC).

NITEL shed 7020 employees, 120 were sacked from its subsidiary, M-tel, which has fewer than 500.

Territorial and general managers of NITEL got the order last Friday to distribute the redundancy letters to the workers, whose union does not oppose the action.

The union on Monday only asked its members to confirm that the payments have been lodged in their accounts with United Bank For Africa (UBA).

"That is the agreement we reached with government officials and we directed the workers that they should not collect any letter except they confirmed that the payments were in their accounts", said Joseph Ajayi, acting General Secretary of the National Union of Postal and Telecommunications Workers (NUPTE).

BPE Spokesman, Joe Anichebe, stressed that the workers do not have any reason to complain because the action "was not forced on them. It was a negotiation. Everybody agreed on the way to go."

A source confirmed that those in the Lagos zone have started receiving their letters and that their severance packages have been lodged in their bank accounts.

According to Ajayi, only the three months’ arrears of salary are being paid for now, as well as furniture and housing allowances and three months’ salary in lieu of notice.

Gratuity of about N72 billion would be paid in 30 days’ time once what is due the workers is correctly computed.

Regardless, Ajayi said the union would not rest on its oars until everyone’s due is paid.

The salary arrears, severance pay and gratuity come from the $500 million paid by Transcorp for a 51 per cent stake in NITEL.

Transcorp is expected to pay the balance $250 million to control 75 per cent of NITEL and M-tel.

Officials declined to disclose when the hand over of NITEL to Transcorp would take place.

There are, however, signs that this could be in the next few days.