Labour unions in the public
service on Monday said they had started mobilising workers against the delay by
the Federal Government to implement the new minimum wage signed into law on
April 18.
The unions, under the aegis of
the Trade Union Side (TUS) of the Joint National Public Service Negotiating
Council (JNPSNC), said in Lagos after its meeting that they would commence
mobilisation of workers for a showdown to press home their demand for the
implementation of the new minimum wage.
A letter signed by Mr Anchaver
Simon, Chairman, and Mr Alade Lawal, Secretary accused the Federal Government
of working to derail negotiation that would result in a consequential
adjustment of salaries in the public service.
The TUS had earlier warned that
the eight unions in the public services of the federal and 36 state governments
might embark on strike if by June 28, the government failed to make any headway
with the negotiation to pay the minimum wage.
According to the TUS, since the
committee set up early in June by the government to work out the consequential
adjustment of the wage started meeting, “the government has been coming up with
strange proposals with the intent to scuttle the implementation of the N30,000
new wage.
”All was going on well until the
government side came up later with their usual magic aimed at scuttling the
whole exercise,” the letter said.
It said that the TUS had
initially proposed that since the minimum wage was increased by 66.66 percent (from
N18,000 to N30,000), salaries for officers on grade levels 01 to 17 should be
adjusted accordingly to maintain the relativity that existed 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 TUS reviewed its demand downward and eventually settled for 30
percent for officers on grade levels 07-14 and 25 percent for those on grade
levels 15-17.
”The government side, on its
part, insisted on 9.5 percent salary raise for employees on grade levels 07 to
14 and five percent for those on grade levels 15 to 17,” the unions said in the
letter.
The letter said that the two
sides later agreed to capture the two positions in the technical committee’s
report which would be presented for discussion at the plenary.
The TUS said in the letter that
it came as a shock at the last meeting of the technical committee when the
government side began to hold on to a non-existent position that the technical
committee’s term of reference was to base its assignment in respect of salary
adjustment on what was provided for in the 2019 budget.
”This is very incorrect and
unfortunate.
“It is regrettable that the
implication of government’s position is that the technical committee cannot go
beyond what the government is pushing for which is 9.5 percent salary increase
for officers on GL 07-14 and five percent for those on GL 15-17,” it said.
The letter said that the
implication of this was that government had a pre-determined position and only
called labour in to rubberstamp its hidden agenda.
It said the turn of event showed
that ”some fifth columnists want to push President Muhammadu Buhari to enter
into a collision course with Nigerian workers in the public service”.
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