Federal Government – Ministers of Labour and Employment, Ngige and Keyamo at the meeting with labour leaders After three days of negotiations between the
Federal Government and the Organised Labour on the consequential adjustments of the implementation of the new minimum wage of N30,000, both parties finally reached an agreement early on Friday, giving workers between 10.5 and 23.2 per cent salary increases.
According to the communique issued by the meeting, the consequential adjustment for Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), called group one is;GL 07 -23.2 per cent, GL 08 -20 per cent, GL 09 – 19 per cent, GL 10 – 14 is 16 per cent, while GL 15-17 is 14 per cent.
“The second Group consists of Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS), Consolidated Tertiary Educational Institutions Salary Structure (CONTEDISS), Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure II (CONUASS II).
“Others are; Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Salary Structure (CONPCASS) and Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS).
“For Grade Level seven and its equivalent, it is 23.2 per cent, GL 8-14 Equivalent at 16 per cent, and GL 15-17/Equivalent at 10.5 per cent.”
The conciliators to the agreement were Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige and his state counterpart, Dr Festus Keyamo.
Witnesses to the agreement from the Government side were; Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, Ag. Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Mr Olusegun Olufehinti, Director IPPIS, Office of the Accountant General of the Federation.
On the Labour side were Mr Simon Anchaver, Ag. Chairman, JNPSNC and Mr Alade Bashir, Secretary General, JNPSNC
Before the agreement, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige said the new minimum wage is a national law and it must be obeyed by all tiers of government and the private businesses employing more than 25 workers.
“We have often repeated that the essence of that law is to lift the vulnerable working force both in the private and public service.
“This is a national law and it must be obeyed by all; state government, local government and all private concerns that employ more than 25 persons in their organisations.
“We have decided to fast-track discussions. We are fast-tracking it because we need to put an end to the issue of minimum wage till the next five years, when it will arise again.
“We need to finalise this today, The suspense is too much for the people. Even your constituency- workers, if we don’t conclude today, they will be thinking otherwise.
“They will start thinking that you have been compromised, even the government side, if we don’t conclude today, they will start saying you people are influencing us.
“This negotiation should be, in the spirit of give and take, in the spirit of one nation, end this thing. If we decide to empty the purse so that the nation will go broke, it will affect all of us.
“If we do give and take, look at government purse and know that this purse has been badly depleted, make some concession, it will be in the interest of Nigeria.”
NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba said that the organised labour would continue to be open minded and would keep up with the principles of collective bargaining.
“We on this side of the table we are ready to ensure that we bring the entire process to a conclusion.
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“In the normal practice of Collective Bargaining, you look at issues from both sides, you look at the situation with workers, vis a viz their pockets and what will make the workers happy and very productive.
“If wishes were horses, we would have wished that this entire negotiation was concluded yesterday.”
Source – https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/
