The Federal Government cannot
meet the demand of Labour in the new minimum wage regime, Minister of Labour
and Employment Chris Ngige, said on Tuesday.
According to him, the economy
will grind to a halt like that of Venezuela, should the government accede to
Labour’s request, the minister added.
Although the Federal Government
has started paying workers on Grade Levels 1 to 6, the N30,000 minimum wage,
there is disagreement with Labour unions over the percentage of increment for senior workers.
Ngige said about 1.4 million
workers in federal public service would take 33 per cent of government budget
in 2020, should Labour’s demand be accepted.
Ngige explained that the
government would have no money to build roads, airports, rails, health centres
and schools if it should spend 33 per cent of the 2020 budget to pay salaries
and wages.
The government cannot shut down
the economy because it wants to pay workers’ wages, he said.
However, after talks yesterday,
both the government and Labour shifted grounds in their positions on the
implementation of the new wage.
The negotiations will continue on
Wednesday (today) in Abuja.
Also on Tuesday, the United
Labour Congress (ULC) foreclosed its participation in the strike call by the
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).
Ngige, who spoke while receiving
members of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), led by its
National President, Ibrahim Khaleel, in Abuja said: “We cannot allow government
to shut down the economy because it wants to pay salaries and wages. The 2020
Budget of N10.3 trillion has N3.8 trillion as personnel cost without overhead.
If you add running cost and other incidental costs, the total recurrent budget
as presented to the National Assembly has taken 76 per cent. Where do we get
the money to build roads, airport, rails, health centres, schools etc.
“It is a matter of balancing a budget that is
76 per cent recurrent and 24 per cent capital, for me, it is nothing to cheer
about. In the 76 per cent, government has captured N200 billion for
consequential adjustment for the minimum wage and so on. These are all part of
personnel. N160 billion is for consequential adjustment of the minimum wage and
not total package of workers’ salaries. Everybody has to make sacrifice. We
must plug leakages.
“The ghost workers should go and
we should know who the real workers are. As of today, we have 1.3 million
persons in the federal civil service and maybe it will be more by the time we
finish bringing everybody into the IPPS.
“The number of workers, 1.4
million or 1.5 million out of 200 million people take 33 per cent of the budget
which has deficit. It is important we know this. It is up to us to use all the
money to pay salaries and the economy will grind to a halt and be like
Venezuela.”
The minister urged labour to make
sacrifice by accepting what the government have offered.
The minister said that he would
not sit and watch labour intimidate government.
“We must give government benefit
of the doubt. I am for labour and I will not sit and watch the being cheated. I
will also not seat and watch labour intimidate government. If you dangle
strike, it is intimidation and ILO Convention does not permit it.
“People should negotiate freely.
If government threatens you in the course of negotiation, it is intimidation.
“I am your friend and friend of
government. In fact, government feels I am not doing enough. That is why I am
talking to you so that you can talk to your people,” he said.
The Federal Government and Labour
leaders yesterday shifted grounds as talks resume today on the consequential
adjustment on the salaries of senior civil servants.
Tuesday’s parley between the
Federal Government team, Labour unions and and members of the Joint National
Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) ended without the parties agreeing
on what to adopt as consequential adjustment on the new minimum wage.
The decision to continue with the
negotiation by 2pm today foreclosed the kick-off of the planned nationwide
strike by workers over the non-implementation of the minimum wage for workers
on Grade Levels seven to 17.
It was learnt that Labour shifted
its earlier position from 29 per cent to 25 per cent for grade levels seven to
14 and 20 per cent for levels 15 to 17 as against the earlier demand of 24 per
cent.
The Federal Government shifted
its earlier position and offered to pay 17 per cent to levels seven to nine; 15
per cent to levels 10 to 14 and 12 per cent to levels 15 to 17.
The Federal Government had
proposed to offer 11 per cent increase for officers on grade levels 07 to 14
and 6.5 per cent adjustment for workers of grade levels 15 to 17.
The Labour team was led by
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Deputy President Amaechi Asogwuni, General
Secretary Emmanuel Ugbaoja, JNPSNC Secretary, Alade Lawal, President of Nigeria
Union of Local Government Employees, Ibrahim Khaleel, and JNPSNC member,
Lawrence Amaechi
On the government team led by the
Head of Service of the Federation (HoCSF), Mrs. Folashade Yemi- Esan, were
Ngige, Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo and the
Acting Chairman, National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Mr. Ekpo Nta.
Asogwuni told reporters after the
meeting that lasted for more than eight hours that he was hopeful that an
agreement would be reached at tomorrow’s (today’s) meeting.
He said: “So far, commitment has
been shown, but we believe that the areas still in contest are critical.
Therefore, the government representatives are urged to also on their part, see
how they can shift ground positively in order to mitigate the agitation ahead.
The HoCSF said: “We had a very
fruitful deliberation today. The Labour side has discovered that there is just
one side – the welfare of the workers. So, we worked very well today
(yesterday). Both sides have made a lot of concessions but we discovered that
there are some grey areas that need to be ironed out.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com