Joint National Public Service
Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) has directed its state councils to begin
negotiations for consequential adjustment and implementation of the new minimum
wage.
After the Federal Government
agreed on consequential adjustments and percentage increase for workers in the
Federal civil service with organised labour on Oct. 18, the joint negotiating
council in each state is expected to open negotiation with its state
government.
However, state governments under
the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum, had said that they would only pay
according to the financial standing of their respective states.
Reacting, the Chairman of the
Council, Mr Simon Anchaver at a meeting in Abuja stated that the Union has
given state governors Dec. 31, as deadline for implementation of the new
minimum wage.
According to him, the Union had
adopted the deregulate collective bargaining style to ensure that state
governments also negotiate what they can afford, so long as it was not lower
than the N30, 000 benchmark.
“Any governor that said he’ll not
pay stands to be impeached,” he said.
Also, the Secretary-General of
the JNPSNC, Mr Alade Lawal, noted that the Union had agreed with it’s state
councils to start sending our letters to state governments, saying negotiations
ought to start upon receipt of such letter.
“Negotiation with state
governments starts anytime from today, we have agreed that the joint national
negotiating council should send letters to state governments which will be sent
tomorrow, the draft for the letter is ready.
“We will first send it to our
members’ email addresses in the states and then we will send the hard copy to
the state governments, Negotiation starts immediately after the receipt of the
letter,” he stated.
Lawal said the council was still
expecting an agreed template from the National Salaries Incomes and Wages
Commission (NSIWC), to act as guideline to states for onward negotiations.
“There are three documents handed
over to the state negotiating council chairmen, the first one is the agreement
we signed with the Federal Government on the consequential adjustment. I am
sure the press already has it.
“We are expecting a circular from
the National Income, Salaries and Wages Commission but we are being proactive.
We have decided to develop a table on consolidated public salary structure and
the consolidated health sector salary arrangement.
“This is like a replica of the
table that we are expecting from the NISWC based on the agreement that we
signed with the FG. This was given to state negotiating council chairmen to
serve as guide so that they can have a view of what it looks like when they
start their own negotiation in their states.
“It however does not serve as the
circular we are expecting from the Federal Government through the NISWC.
“The FG will still issue the
circular in respect of the new wage structure so the one we have done is not
binding but just a working document between us and our counterpart in states.
“The document will not hinder
their negotiation with state governments.
“It is for the personal use of
our members in the states, we are not forwarding it to the state governments.
“We are hopeful that by December
31, all negotiations should be wrapped up. In areas where we have difficulties,
we have decided to move in as a group to shut down the space towards ensuring
that implementation is done.
“The agreement we had with the FG
is the minimum for the states. Some will go beyond it but no one will go below
it.
“There are some states that have
low salary level. They have to discuss something higher that what we had with
the FG. It depends on peculiarity of the states. If you say 23.2 per cent
increase for a level seven officer in the federal civil service, it boils down
to about N15,000.
“But if you apply the same
percentage for workers on the same level in some state civil service, it
translates to about N4,000. In that case,you have to be able to negotiate a
higher percentage to be able to get something close to N15,000 we are talking
about in this case. That is where the negotiation comes in.
“There are different
peculiarities in states and that is why we don’t want to give a blanket
statement on what to do. With the discussion we have with the state officers,
they know what to do.
“These are what we discuss at the
meeting. We also shared information and data on some of the statistics that I
told you about.
“We also shared with the state
council chairmen our experiences, the intrigues to be involved, the blackmail,
the need for them to be honest and resilient; I want to believe that they are
well guided.”
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