Labour Ready For Showdown Over Rumour Of Salary Cut, Finance Minister Says, No Such Plan

Labour Ready For Showdown Over Rumour Of Salary Cut, Finance Minister Says, No Such Plan

Zainab Tanimu

Kaduna, North – West, Nigeria

It is true the saying that there is no smoke without fire. The Organised Labour seems all set for a showdown with the Federal Government over rumour of plan to cut down  Nigerian workers salaries. This plan it has condemned and rejected in its totality.

This follows the recent statement credited to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, in which she revealed the Federal Government’s plan to reduce the cost of governance by cutting down workers’ salaries.

This disclosure was contained in a statement issued by the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Waba, on Wednesday in Abuja, in which he expressed shock and noted that the plan was tantamount to a mass suicide wish for Nigerian workers.

The NLC President in his statement is saying that “The minister also allegedly directed the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), to immediately review the salaries of civil servants as well as the number of federal agencies in the country.

It is most unthinkable that the government would be contemplating to unilaterally slash the salaries of Nigerian workers at this time.

He added that “The question to ask is which salary is the government planning to slash? It certainly cannot be the meager national minimum wage of N30, 000, which right now cannot even buy a bag of rice.”

The NLC President said that he believed the proposed salary slash was certainly not targeted at the minimum wage and consequential adjustment in salaries that some state governors were still dragging their feet to pay..

He said that the multiple devaluations of the Naira in a short time, and the prevailing high inflation rate in Nigeria had negatively impacted on the salaries earned by Nigerian workers across the board.

He said, “Nigerian workers are only surviving by hair’s breadth. Indeed, Nigerian workers are miracles strutting on two legs.

“It is, therefore, extremely horrendous for a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to pronounce salary slash for Nigerian workers currently. This call for salary slash by Mrs Zainab Ahmed is tantamount to a “mass suicide” wish, for Nigerian workers.”

While demanding an immediate retraction and apology by the Minister of Finance, the NLC president, however, said that if there was any salary that needed serious slashing, it was the humongous remuneration and allowances pocketed by political office holders in Nigeria, who did extraordinarily little but collected so much.

Wabba said, “Workers generate surplus value and revenue for the government. We do not constitute any unnecessary cost or burden to governance. It is also important to make the point that salaries are products of contracts governed by laws. They cannot be unilaterally adjusted.”

This move is not only at great odds with global best responses to the COVID-19 pandemic but also in violation of relevant ILO Conventions and Declarations on Wages and Decent Work. We urge the government as a social partner to quickly respond to the demands by Labour for an upward review of salaries of all Nigerian workers.

Nigerian workers have shown sufficient understanding with the government through the tough patches of the pandemic. Now, Nigerian workers demand reciprocity of our understanding. Nigerian workers demand an increase in their remunerations and allowances.”

Minister Says No Such Plan:

The Honorable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed has said, contrary to what has been reported by some media, the federal government is not thinking of cutting wages, rather mulling salary harmonisation.

The Federal Government is seeking more of pay parity for workers.

She disclosed this at the ongoing ‘National Policy Dialogue on Corruption and Cost of Governance in Nigeria’ organised by the Independent Corrupt Practice Commission (ICPC) in Abuja on Tuesday; saying, that the President had directed the salaries committee to review payroll and also review the number of agencies.

This is contrary to reports by some media, that the federal government is thinking of cutting wages, rather mulling salary harmonisation. This is against the backdrop of the fact that there are some government agencies paying much higher than others, for staff on the same grade level.

Explaining further in a statement dated 5th May, 2021, issued and signed by the Special Adviser, Media and Communications to the Honourable Minister of Finance, Yunusa Tanko Abdullahi, she said,

“What government hopes to achieve is to redistribute wages equally across board. Let us bring our salary structure within government agencies as close or as equitable and fair. “what we seek to achieve is to create fairness and equity and to reduce cost” With this readjustment, when finally done, workers in the public service will earn a fair and equitable wages,” she said.

“We still see government expenditure increase to a terrain twice higher than our revenue,” Ahmed said.

The government had approved a N13.88trillion budget with a deficit of over N5.6trillion, and projected a revenue of N7.98trillion to fund part of the 2021 budget.

The Honourable Minister urged that all agencies must come together to trim their costs, given Nigeria’s dwindling revenue. According to her, the government would also remove some unnecessary items from the budget as a move to cut the cost of governance in the country.

She said, “We need to work together, all agencies of the government to cut down our cost. We need to cut down unnecessary expenditures. Expenditures that we can do without. Our budgets are filled year in year out with projects that we see over and over again, and also projects that are not necessary.”

“President Muhammadu Buhari has directed that the salaries committee, which I chair, work together with the Head of Service (HOS) and other members of the committee to review the government pay rolls considering stepping down on cost.”

She revealed that the government would also review the number of government agencies in terms of their mandates. Ahmed disclosed that for agencies with the same mandate, the government would look at merging the two.

The Chairman of ICPC, Mr. Bolaji Owasanoye, noted during the stakeholders meeting, that the cost of governance is the “driver of corruption in Nigeria.”

He said that the government had committed to improving the country’s revenue from new and existing sources.

Owasanoye said that the government’s commitment to streamline payroll, removal of subsidies and reduction of the cost of contracts and procurement are all for the benefits of the poor and vulnerable.

He also said that a critical area of concern was what he called, ‘payroll padding’ and the ‘phenomenon of ghost workers.’

The ICPC boss lamented the duplication of projects such as the constituency projects of lawmakers, and noted that funding for such projects was usually released without any mechanism for monitoring and evaluation and reconciliation of the funding.

He then cited a project executed by the Redeemed Christian Church of God which was inadvertently diverted as an executive project. The statement added.