THE Federal Government has approved the payment of the new 40 per cent pay rise for federal civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS)
However, the pay rise will not be enjoyed other federal workers operating under different salary structures, such as university workers and medical doctors, who are under the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure and Consolidated Medical Salary Scale, respectively.
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The non-academic workers in tertiary institutions, nurses, police, members of the armed forces and some other category of public servant will not benefit from the pay rise.
The approval for the peculiar allowance was conveyed by the head of the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, in a memo addressed to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
According to the Punch newspaper, the memo stated that only the 144,766 staff members of the federal civil service under the CONPSS salary structure will be paid the allowance, which will take effect from January 1, 2023.
In the memo, the commission stated that the estimated sum of N79.37 billion per annum required to implement the allowance for the 144,766 staff on CONPSS would be funded from the treasury.
“This approval takes effect from 1st of January, 2023 and the estimated sum of seventy nine billion, three hundred and seventy-three million, three hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and fifty-nine Naira (N79,373,340,959.00) per annum required to implement it for the 144,766 staff on CONPSS will be funded from the treasury,” the memo said.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had during his appearance of Channels Television, last month, announced a pay rise for civil servants across the country.
He disclosed that the rise had been included in the 2023 budget and that it would help government workers to cushion the effects of rising inflation, rising cost of living, and hikes in transportation fare, housing and electricity tariffs.
Meanwhile, some workers have started receiving bank alerts of the arrears for the first three months of the year, while others have protested the exclusion of their members from the payment of the peculiar allowance.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has protested the exclusion of its members from the payment of the peculiar allowance.
ASUU National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the government of trying to create problems in the system, adding that the Union would study the situation on the ground and make its stand known soon.
“We just saw the news this evening that arrears are being paid to workers. We are surprised. However, we will study the situation,” he said.
“The government is simply trying to create a problem in the system. We are watching and we are studying the situation of things on the ground,”
Similarly, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has also kicked against the exclusion of medical doctors from the pay rise.
NARD President, Emeka Orji, said that members were not happy with the development, because the Federal Government had yet to complete the process of increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure both for doctors and other health workers since over one year.
“We are happy that they increased the salary of civil servants, but the only thing is that they have yet to do ours up till now. These are some of the things causing agitation,” he was quoted by the Punch newspaper as saying.
“I’m sure that when we have our national emergency council meeting on Friday, April 28, 2023, this will be part of the major discussions and decisions will be taken in that meeting.”
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Is Judiciary part of the pay rise?