By Ibrahim Apekhade Yusuf
The organised labour and the federal government may be on a collision course over the fresh salary cut being proposed by the latter across all sectors, The Nation has learnt.
It may be recalled that the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Zainab Ahmed, had hinted that the Federal Government was working to reduce the high cost of governance by cutting down on the salaries of workers.
The Minister was reported to have said this in Abuja at a policy dialogue on corruption and cost of governance in Nigeria organised by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission. The Minister of Finance was also reported to have 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.
Reacting to the minister, in a statement by the President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, he described as scandalous moves by the government to cut down salaries, saying it smacked of insensitivity and lack of empathy for the masses.
In the statement which reads in part, the NLC boss said, “It is most unthinkable that government would be contemplating to unilaterally slash the salaries of Nigerian workers at this time. The question to ask is “which salary is government planning to slash?” It certainly cannot be the meagre national minimum wage of N30000 which right now cannot even buy a bag of rice! The proposed slash in salaries is certainly not targeted at the minimum wage and consequential adjustment in salaries that some callous state governors are still dragging their feet to pay.”
Pressed further, Wabba said, “It is public knowledge that the multiple devaluation of the Naira in a very short time and the prevailing high inflation rate in Nigeria has knocked out the salaries earned by Nigerian workers across board. 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 at this time.”
The NLC boss further reiterated that, “This call for salary slash by Mrs. Zainab Ahmed is tantamount to a “mass suicide” wish for Nigerian workers. It is most uncharitable, most insensitive, most dehumanizing and most barbaric. Nigerian workers demand an immediate retraction and apology by the Minister of Finance.”
He therefore impressed on President Muhammadu Buhari the need to call the Minister of Finance to order. “If there is any salary that needs serious slashing it is the humungous remuneration and allowances pocketed by political office holders in Nigeria who do very little but collect so much.”
While making a case for the workers, Wabba said, “Workers generate surplus value and revenue for 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.”
Many countries of the world, he stressed, “Are increasing the salaries of their workforce, extending social security coverage for their citizens and providing all forms of palliatives to help their people through the terrible socioeconomic dislocations occasioned by the COVID-19 pandemic, it would be completely absurd for the Nigerian government to be thinking of salary slash. This move is not only at great odds with global best responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is also in violation of relevant ILO Conventions and Declarations on Wages and Decent Work.”
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