Alarmed by persistent government’s efforts to derail the implementation of a new National Minimum Wage, organized labour has commenced mobilisation of its members nationwide to prepare them for the next line of action.
Operating under the aegis of the Trade Union Side (TUS) of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), the eight (8) Unions in the Public Services of the Federal and 36 State Governments have alerted Nigerians that labour may have to embark on industrial action if the current state of affairs as regards the issue of consequential adjustment arising from the new national Minimum wage of N30,000.00 per month remains the same.
In a press statement issued in Abuja on Monday, the TUS Acting Chairman, Comrade Anchaver Simon, and the Secretary, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, regretted that since the Committee set up early this month by the government to work out the Consequential Adjustments arising from the new National Minimum Wage of N30,000.00 started to meet, the government has been coming up with one strange proposal or the other all with the intent of scuttling the implementation of the new National Minimum Wage signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, 18th April, 2019.
The Union said: “As things are right now, the government side is only prepared to pay peanuts to workers as adjustment under the pretext that it will soon be undertaking general salary review in the Public Service.
“It will be recalled that the Committee on Consequential Adjustment of salary agreed to set up a technical body to work out different scenarios in respect of salaries that would be paid to workers who are in the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) that draw their emoluments from the Government treasury.
“The Technical Committee met severally and series of computations that were to be presented for the plenary for consideration were developed. All was going on well until the Government Side came up later with their usual magic and ambush all aimed at scuttling the whole exercise”.
The Labour leaders stated that the TUS had initially proposed that since the minimum wage was increased by 66.66 per cent that is, from N18,000.000 to N30,000.00, salaries for officers on Grade Levels 01-17 should be adjusted accordingly to maintain the relativity that exists in the salary structure in the Public Service.
“But when the government side argued that such increase across board would raise the total wage bill too high, the Trade Union side reviewed its demand downward and eventually settled for 30 per cent for officers on Grade Levels 07-14 and 25 per cent for those on Grade Levels 15-17. The Government side on its part was insisting on 9.5% salary raise for employees on Grade Levels 07-14 and 5% for those on Grade Levels 15-17,” the union stated.
The two (2) sides then agreed to capture the two positions in the technical committee’s report which will now be presented for discussion at the plenary.