The Federal Government is working
toward early implementation of new minimum wage which has caused a lot
of controversies in recent times, Mr Boss Mustapha, the Secretary to the
Government of the Federation (SGF) has said.
Mustapha made this known on Thursday in Abuja at the opening of a
one-day symposium on the 25th anniversary of the National Salaries,
Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC) which has “Overcoming the
Challenges of Compensation and Productivity in Nigeria” as its theme.
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| SGF, Boss Mustapha |
Represented by Mr Olusegun Adekunle, the Permanent Secretary, General
Services Office, Office of the SGF, the SGF said that the present
administration was committed to the welfare of Nigerian workers.
He said “I wish to point out that the focus of the national minimum
income wage is on government employees, this critical sector ought not
to be left behind and nobody will be left behind.
“Such employees are also dominantly found in the informal sector and the small scale organisations.
“However, it is important to know that the revision of the minimum
wage should be taken through due process and all key stakeholders
carried along.”
Mustapha said that the pay relativity question could not be resolved
without the development and implementation of a new job evaluation
scheme.
He, therefore, urged the NSIWC to commence the process, adding that
government had also observed that productivity needed to take the centre
stage in wage determination.
He also urged the commission to leverage on the pilot schemes it was
working on in collaboration with the National Productivity Centre to
raise a production team in the public service.
The government scribe said that public office holders must bear in
mind that remuneration packages for their various offices
were appropriately spelt out in the law.
He added that it would be inappropriate for anyone to allow himself
to be paid higher than what the law stipulates, noting that “any
infraction reported by NSIWC in the course of carrying out its mandate
shall be investigated and punished by the anti-graft agencies in future.”
According to him, government is concerned about the spate of strikes
in the country as it affects the economy over the last decade, especially the public sector.
He called on labour unions to resist the urge to resort to work stoppages without exhausting alternatives and more peaceful options for conflict resolution.
He said that the Federal Government remained committed to the stability and development of the economy and service delivery to the public as stakeholders in the nation.
Mr Ayuba Wabba, the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said
that “in our system today, it is the political class that determines the
wages of workers, while the political class determines and
collects what it wants, which is higher.
“There must be social justice in wage fixing, therefore, this issue
is an issue that I think the wages commission needs to engage our
political class and get this information to them.
“We have heard arguments where state governors say workers are a tiny
minority, I do not know who is the tiny minority between the political
class and the working class.
“The political class are the tiny minority because they cannot say
that our workers, including the police, the armed forces, which without them they cannot sleep with their eyes closed, are the minority.”
Wabba decried the situation where the nation had more than 25 salary structures for the same system “when what should rather be operational was the principle of equal pay for equal productivity.
“Our compensation process should be a process that can stimulate
productivity because the two work together. If a worker is not paid and cannot take care of his or her family and pay school fees, can he or she be productive?”
“With better condition of service and compensation, I will be able to
think well, work well and therefore the two must work together.”
Mr Bala Kaigama, the President of Trade Union Congress (TUC) said that the disparity in the salaries and income wages system was engendered by the NSIWC and was not fair to core civil servants.
He said that it was of great concern to members of the union, adding
that there were many salary structures in the public service.
According to him, of all the structures in existence, that which
operates in the civil service is the lowest in terms of remuneration, while other structures are high.
He noted that “it is, therefore, becoming extremely difficult to
explain the reasons behind these differences in salary structure, which
in most cases short-changed civil servants.
“Recently, the salaries of the police received an upward review and
when you look at what is going on at the top echelon, compared to the
top echelon in the civil service, the gap is just too wide.
“You may be surprised to know that in some agencies and parastatals
of government, junior officers earn as much as N200,000 per month, while
officers in the directorate level in core ministries that supervise
these parastatals receive less than that.”
He said that the TUC had produced a memorandum on salary review for
the core civil service and had submitted same to Federal Government for
necessary action.
Kaigama said that the Joint National Public Service Negotiating
Council was already involved in implementing the submissions of the
memorandum, adding that there was need for the NSIWC to also be
involved.
Mr Richard Egbule, the Chairman of NSIWC, said that the role of the
commission was essential, as it was set up to examine, streamline and
recommend salary scales applicable to each post in the public service.
He said that in the 25 years of its existence, the commission had
contributed to adjustments on wages, salary allowances and pensions in the country.
He, however, explained that many of the commission’s functions
relating to income policy guidelines could not operate in today’s
deregulated economic space.
This, he said, was because though the commission was established based on the recommendations of the Udoji Commission of 1974, its enabling Act put an end to the Productivity, Prices and Incomes
Board (PPIB) Act and transferred its responsibilities to the NSIWC.
“That is why when people talk about the absence of wage policy, they forget that any wage policy that allows non-wage incomes to rove about without check, can be counter-productive,” he stressed.
