PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has described the Federal government’s latest salary increase for workers in the remaining six salary structures as a ‘mischievous’ move.
He said this on Wednesday, May 1, while speaking on Channels Telivision’s Sunrise Daily programme.
Ajaero noted that the last minimum wage of N30,000 expired on April 18.
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“The federal government, through the National Assembly, legislated on it. But we saw that the discussion entered voice mail because the federal government refused to reconvene the meeting that was adjourned.
“I think the announcement now appears mischievous because there is no wage increase that the government is announcing. For them to announce it now, is an issue that we are worried about at the NLC and even at the TUC,” Ajaero said.”
The ICIR reports that the federal government on the eve of Workers’ Day (April 30) announced that it had approved a salary increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent for civil servants on the remaining six Consolidated Salary Structures.
The head of press, National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Emmanuel Njoku, made the announcement of the development in a statement.
The increase applies to the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS), Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).
The federal government also approved pension increases of between 20 per cent and 28 per cent for pensioners on the Defined Benefits Scheme in respect to the above six consolidated salary structures with effect from January 1, 2024.
However, reacting to the development, Ajaero said that organised labour agreed on N615,000 as the living wage for civil servants.
Giving the breakdown of the figure, he said “We have housing and accommodation of N40,000. We asked for electricity of N20,000 — of course, that was before the current tariff increase. Nobody can spend this amount currently. We have a utility that is about N10,000. We looked at kerosene and gas which is about N25,000 to N35,000.
“We looked at food for a family of six, that is about N9,000 in a day. For 30 days, that is about N270,000. Look at medical, N50,000 provided there will be no surgery or whatever.
Ajaero also stated that N20,000 was allocated for clothing, N50,000 for education, and N10,000 for sanitation.
He said another bulk of the money was for transportation, noting that the workers stay on the fringes because of the cost of PMS, which amounted to N110,000.
“That brought the whole living wage to N615,000 and I want anyone to subject this to further investigation and find out whether there will be any savings when you pay somebody on this rate.”
New minimum wage will take effect from May 1 – FG
While addressing the concerns raised by the NLC, the federal government stated that although the Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage was yet to conclude its negotiations, workers would not incur any losses.
It added that the new minimum wage would take effect from May 1, 2024, as earlier agreed upon.
The Minister of State Labour, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, stated this on Wednesday while addressing Nigerian workers at the May Day celebration in Abuja.
She expressed regret that the new national minimum wage wasn’t prepared before today but assured that extensive consultations were underway to expedite the compilation of the document.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: umustapha@icirnigeria.com. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M