Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment has said that President Muhammadu Buhari may soon announce salary adjustment for public servants in the country to cushion the effect of the current economic hardships.
Ngige disclosed this on Tuesday while fielding questions from journalists at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, shortly after meeting with President Buhari.
The minister, who disclosed that his discussions with the president centred on salary adjustment, said “a Presidential Committee on Salaries is working hand-in-hand with the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission.
“The commission is mandated by the Act establishing them to fix salaries, wages, and emoluments in not only the public service. If you want their assistance and you are in the private sector, they will also assist you. They have what is called the template for remuneration for compensation.
“So, if you work, you get compensated, if you don’t work, you are not compensated. So they have the matrix to do the evaluation, they are working with the presidential committee on salaries chaired by the finance ministry and I’m the co-chair to look at the demand of the workers. Outside this, I said discussions on that evaluation are going.
Asked if there is anytime stipulated for implementation of the proposed salary increase, Ngige said: “As we enter the New Year, government will make some pronouncements in that direction”
The minister said he had discussed “exhaustively” with the president on the issues affecting labour, adding that “part of my mandate is to deal with labour issues. First and foremost, we look at the employment situation in the country and what we have achieved and what we have not achieved.
“We also had a briefing on productivity viz-a- viz the various industrial disputes we had in 2022.
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“It is what we can call a year of industrial dispute starting from the February; Academic Staff Union of the Universities (ASUU) strike which was joined by other sister unions in the university system and even the people in the research institutes and thereafter pressed from various unions, including the medical doctors, and then the youth wing of the National Association of Resident Doctors, JOHESU which is also the Joint Health Sector Union.
“All were asking for a wage increase and wage increase can also be understandable because of what inflation had done in the economy and the attendant cost of living for people who work in the public sector.
“The private sector employers have managed their affairs better, maybe, because their finances and its management is within their audit and they could control it, they could do collective bargaining easily with their workers.
“We didn’t have the desired calmness on the government’s side because of the government’s finances.
“However, I’ve briefed him, we are doing some review within the presidential committee on salaries, and discussions are ongoing. The doctors are discussing with the ministry of health, insurance people in the public sector are discussing and there is a general calmness. Hopefully, within available resources, the government can do something within the coming year.
Speaking further, Ngige said ASUU salary issues have been referred to the National Industrial Court for determination “whether a worker who is on strike should be paid in violation of section 43 of the Trade Dispute Act which says when you go on strike, the consequences are these: number one, you will not be paid, you will not be compensated for not going to work to enable your employer keep the industry or enterprise afloat.
“That money should not be given to you, and that compensation should not be given. It’s there in Section 43 (1). There is a second leg for Section 43, it also said that, that period you were on strike will not count for you as part of your pensionable period of work in your service.
He added: “That leg, the government has not touched it, but the leg of no-work-no-pay has been triggered off by that strike.
“So, we are asking the court to look at it. The matter is out of the hands of the executive (that’s us) and now in the hands of the judiciary. ASUU has also put up a defence in court, asking the court, yes we went on strike, but we did that for a reason. So it’s now left for the court to look at it”, Ngige said.
