The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said yesterday that the organised labour agreed on N615,000 as the living wage for civil servants and that the 35 per cent increase in the salary of civil servants announced by the federal government is a no-no.
The president of NLC, Mr Joe Ajaero, stated this during an interview on Channels Television to commemorate Workers’ Day held yesterday throughout the federation.
Recall that the federal government had earlier announced an increase of between 25 and 35 per cent in salary for civil servants on the remaining six consolidated salary structures.
The announcement was contained in a statement signed by the spokesman for the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Mr Emmanuel Njoku.
The government backdated the increases to January 1, 2024.
The affected salary structures are 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).
Those in the tertiary education and health sectors had already received their increases which involved Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure (CONUASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Institutions Salary Structure (CONTISS) for Universities.
For polytechnics and colleges of education, it involved the Consolidated Polytechnics and Colleges of Education Academic Staff Salary Structure (CONPCASS) and Consolidated Tertiary Educational Institutions Salary Structure (CONTEDISS).
The health sector also benefitted through the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure (CONMESS) and Consolidated Health Sector Salary Structure (CONHESS).
The government also approved increases in pension of between 20 and 28 per cent respectively for pensioners on the defined benefits scheme with respect to the six consolidated salary structures with effect from January 1, 2024.
“The government “conveys approval for the implementation of new pension rates for pensioners under the defined benefits scheme following the recent increase in the under-listed consolidated salary structures in the federal public service as grade level 01 to 16, (20 percent), grade level 17 (28 per cent), grade level 01 to14 (20 per cent) and grade level 15 (28 per cent),” the statement added.
In his reaction, Ajaero described as “mischievous” the government’s announcement.
“We should be in the regime of a new minimum wage as of today (yesterday). Discussions were supposed to have been concluded.
“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.
“Living wage is such that will, at least keep you alive. It is not a wage that will make you poorer and poorer. It is not a wage that will make you borrow to go to work. It is not a wage that will lead you to be in the hospital every day because of malnutrition. For that living wage, we have tried to look at N615, 000.
“Let me give you a breakdown of how we arrived at that figure. 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.
“For clothing, we looked at N20,000, for education, N50,000. I don’t know those who tried to put their children in private school if they will not be able to cope with this amount. We also have sanitation of N10, 000.
“I think where we have another bulk of the money is transportation. This is because the workers stay on the fringes and because of the cost of PMS, which amounted to N110, 000,” he said.
