LAGOS AUGUST 23RD (URHOBOTODAY)-Delta State Governme¬nt and organised lab¬our unions in the st¬ate have agreed to temporally suspend the payment of N30,000 minimum wage for civil servants of gra¬de level 7 to 17 and to revert to the N1¬8,000 old minimum wage.
The agreement was re¬ached at the end of a meeting between the government represe¬ntatives, Nigerian Labour Congress NLC, Trade Union Congress TUC and witnessed by Joint Negotiating Council (JNC).
Part of the resoluti¬ons on the part of government, elected and political appoint¬ees including Govern¬or Ifeanyi Okowa, his deputy, Deacon Kin¬gsley Otuaro and the Speaker of the Delta State House of Ass¬embly, Hon Sheriff Oborevwori are to fo¬rfeit between 20 and 25 per cent of their salaries.
It was however learnt that the state gov¬ernment would return to the status quo if the state revenue record improves even before the agreed six months reached with the labour lea¬ders.
It was further gathe¬red that a delegation of the state gover¬nment acting on the directive of the sta¬te governor, Senator Okowa, told represe¬ntatives of the NLC and other unions that government can no longer sustain the payment with the curr¬ent economic reality globally.
The commissioner for Information, Mr Ch¬arles Aniagwu, had told newsmen before the agreement was rea¬ched, that the state government and orga¬nized labour unions in the state were al¬ready working out mo¬dalities on percenta¬ge of salary cut acr¬oss board, citing the impacts of COVID-19 on the economy.
According to Aniagwu, the salary cut will enable the state government have funds to tackle other dev¬elopmental projects, saying the salary cut will be a temporary measure as the sta¬te will not hesitate to pay the backlog when the economy imp¬roves.
The options, accordi¬ng to a statement relea¬sed by NLC after the tripartite agreement were, firstly, “th¬at Cooperative and other deductions will not be remitted for the next six (6) mo¬nths in order to meet the payment of the net salary and to enable the state gove¬rnment focus on key projects of the Ok¬owa administration.”
Other conditions were that, “grade levels 1 to 6 are to rece¬ive new minimum wage, while grade level 7 to 17 are to revert to the old wage and the difference to be paid when the eco¬nomy improves. In ot¬her words, they are to sacrifice their percentage increase for the period.”
The third option pr¬oposed by the govern¬ment was retrenchment in the state civil service, especially department that were currently redundant and not effective.
It was however learnt that after series of negotiation meeti¬ngs, the union leade¬rs led by the state NLC chairman, Comrade Goodluck Ofobruku, settled for the sal¬ary cut option which is the suspension of the payment of the new minimum wage for civil servants of grade level 7 to 17.
Also to ensure fairn¬ess, the union leade¬rs at the meetings recommended 20 and 25 per cent pay cut for elected and politi¬cal appointees inclu¬ding the governor and members of the Sta¬te Executive Council (SEC), which Govern¬or Okowa was said to have approved.
Opposition Kicks
However, the main op¬position party, the APC has criticised vehemently this plan by the government and organized labour describing the move as unconscionable, anti-people and a cal-culated attempt to further subject civil servants to dehuman¬ization.
According to a state¬ment endorsed by the State Publicity Sec¬retary of the party, Sylvester Oghenelue¬mu Imonina, the APC frowned at the leade¬rship of the Nigerian Labour Congress (N-LC), for betraying the trust of workers.
“Some days ago, a pu¬rported statement em¬anating from Nigerian Labour Congress, Delta State Chapter, a body that was supp¬osed to be the mouth¬piece of workers in the state, informed Deltans that the gov¬ernment of the state had concluded plans to reduce or revert the salary structure of civil servants of levels 7 to 17 to the old minimum wage as against the pre¬sent nationally agre¬ed minimum wage of N30, 000. 00.
“Unfortunately, few members of the state NLC, without compre¬hensive consultation and for ulterior mo¬tives, acquiesced to this plan of the st¬ate government not minding the adverse effect same would have on workers.”
The party said, “APC Delta State is aware that Delta State got the highest month¬ly allocation from the federation account between January 20¬20 to June 2020. Fur¬ther findings also show that in the South South and South Ea¬st of Nigeria, Delta State gets the high¬est internally gener¬ated revenue besides other sources of in¬come from the Federal Government.
“Presently, it is on¬ly Delta State Gover¬nment that has conce¬ived and made public the idea of salary reduction of civil servants in the South South despite the fact that the state is more financially viable than other sta¬¬tes in the region.
“We therefore state without any air of equivocation that if some states in Niger¬ia are towing the li¬ne of salary reducti¬on for its civil ser¬vants, Delta should not be among, in view of what comes into the state coffers on a monthly basis whi¬ch is about four tim¬es what some other states get.
Opposition Party Sho¬uld Leave Alone – NLC
Meanwhile, the state chairman of the NL¬C, Comrade Goodluck Ofobruku who threw more lights on the ra¬tionale behind the tripartite agreement called on the APC to leave workers alone saying, “the worke¬rs wore the shoe and they know where it pinches.”
Ofobruku said the mo¬ve is to enable the government have funds to meet other obli¬gations saying, “as at today the state government is spending N1.2 billion on pe¬nsion alone – there is also the contribu¬tory health scheme where the workers con¬tribute 1.5 percent of their salaries and the state governme¬nt also contributes 1.75 percent to the scheme – to enable workers get free trea-tments when they fall sick.
“After looking at the scenarios, it was obvious that governme¬nt cannot pay the mi¬nimum wage because there is significant drop from what used to come from federati¬on account, as well as drop in the IGR. So after consultation and considerations we resolved that go¬vernment should stop the implementation of the new minimum wage for officers on salary grade 7 to 17. We must make it cl¬ear that it is not only civil servants that are sacrificing for this six months in the first instance.”
He said political of¬fice holders in the state will equally sacrifice 20 percent of their gross salar¬ies, adding that what was added to the workers salary for the implementation of the new minimum wage was very small – some people got 4 per¬cent, 5, 6, 8, 10 pe¬rcent addition from their salaries depen¬ding on level.
“So the suspension of these percentages is what we have agre¬ed for the senior wo¬rkers, to enable gove¬rnment also pay the pensioners, and cont¬inue the health sche¬me. The minimum wage will continue for the officers in salary grade 1 to 6. Howe¬ver, we equally agre¬ed that if before the 6 months period and things improve the government will automat¬ically reverse to the new minimum wage.
“We must not forget that more than 70 pe¬rcent of the work fo¬rce have been at home since March this year, and the governm¬ent is paying them, so we don’t want a situation where the state government says we won’t pay – we have over 33, 000 pri¬mary and secondary school teachers and they have been at home since March, but th¬ey have been getting their salaries.
“Our tertiary instit¬utions, the universi¬ty, three polytechni¬cs, three colleges of education, three schools of nursing, two schools of midwif¬ery, so all these ins¬titutions both acade¬mic and non academic have been at home and they are receiving salaries. So asking us to sacrifice 3, 4, 5 percents that was added last few months ago is not too much for the workers because if the gov-ernment say they won¬’t pay workers salar¬ies because there is no money what happe¬ns?
“So we also compare Delta and other stat¬es, Delta is among the first states to implement the minimum wage, the moment the COVID-19 pandemic started most state governments stopped nego¬tiation on the minim¬um wage – the entire South East have not implemented the min¬imum wage, the entire South West save for Lagos State, have not implemented the new wage. In the South South only Edo and Delta are paying the new minimum wage whereas Edo has about 11, 000 work force Delta has 49, 000 pl¬us work force – so when we looked at all the parameters we found out that Delta go¬vernment is doing ve¬ry well.”
According to him, “as the chairman of NLC I will not want to preside over a work force that will not receive their salar¬ies – if your salary is N220, 000 and N2¬0, 000 is deducted it is not bad! After the agreement with the government the st¬ate executive council of NLC met to rati¬fy the resolution. It is just a tempor¬al suspension the state government has not cancelled the min¬imum wage.
He appealed to the opposition party to leave them alone, since the civil servants are not answerable to them. “Workers in the state are happy with the decision. We are the workers, we wore the shoe and know where it pinches – so we know where to make the ne¬cessary sacrifices in this case. We have to make sacrifices to enable our people who have not been to work since March co¬ntinue to get their salaries,” he pointe¬d out.
2020, A Year Of Surv¬ival – SDP
The Social Democratic Party (SDP), was of the view that salari¬es should not be cut as year 2020 has gr¬eat challenges for citizens globally. He appealed to the Del¬ta State Governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa to reconsider the government plans to suspend the payment of the new minimum wa¬ge for civil servants grade 7 to 17 owing to the fall in rev¬enues of the state occasioned by COVID-19.
The chairman of the party in Delta State, Amb Oke Idawene JP, told LEADERSHIP Sunday that year 2020 due to the effect of COVID-¬19 on the lives of citizens, it has beco¬me a year of surviva¬l, hence Okowa should not contemplate cu¬tting down salary of any worker in the state.”
He added that the ma¬jority of the civil servants were not ha¬ppy with the develop¬ment saying year 2020 has become a year of ‘survival and not a year to carry out massive projects’. “If salaries are cut what happens to th¬eir needs?” He queri¬ed.
LEADERSHIP Sunday however gathered that the sta¬te wage bill before the implementation of the new minimum wa¬ge in February this year was N7.7 billion, while the new mini¬mum wage was additional N750 mil¬lion. The planned suspe¬nsion of the additio¬nal N750 million to the wage, the stakeh¬olders say is uncal¬led-for.
The Governor Should Prune Down Numbers of Appointees – GLAFA
The president, Good Leadership Advocacy for Africa (GLAFA), Dr O’Diakpo Obire condemned, in strong terms, the planned sus¬pension of the new minimum wage by the state government, des¬cribing it as “callo¬us, reprehensible, wicked, anti-people, and a loud evidence of poor and myopic governance.”
Dr Obire in a stat¬ement he made availa¬ble to news men stat¬ed that, “It is most shameful for a state that receives one of the highest month¬ly allocations from the Federal Governme¬nt , to reduce the sal¬aries of civil serva¬nts thereby subjecti¬ng them to further dehumanisation. It is a loud evidence of poor governance that borders on reckless¬ness while resources of the state is be-ing squandered on th¬ousands of political appointees to the detriment of career civil servants who ma¬ke things work in the state.
“It is as inconceiva¬ble as it is ludicro¬us for the state gov¬ernor to be comforta¬ble paying the salar-ies of thousands of redundant and unprod¬uctive Special Advis¬ers, Special Assista¬nts, Senior Special Assistants, Executive Assistants, etc, but has no qualms in chopping off huge pa¬rts of the little sa¬laries of poor civil servants who toil night and day in serv¬ice to motherland. I doubt if there is any civil servant in Delta State who is not disgusted by this action.
“When some state gov¬ernments in Nigeria proactively took ste¬ps to diversify their economies by estab¬lishing industries that create hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate income, Delta State govern¬ment was busy reckle¬ssly appointing thou¬sands of SAs, SSAs, EAs and others. Now that the ‘chickens have come home to roo¬st’, civil servants salaries must not be cut.
“The governor should instead drastically prune down the number of his bloated and redundant appointees and reduce official vehicles. These are drain pipes. Civil servants shouldn’t bear the brunt of the Government’s lack of foresight and fin¬ancial recklessness,” the statement conc¬luded.
Okowa Should Resign – Right Activist
However, a right act¬ivist, Comrade Christ¬ian Moses Abeh, coo¬dinator, Deltan Liv¬es Matter, called for the outright resig¬nation of the govern¬or for contemplating the suspension of the payment of the new minimum wage, argui¬ng that the governor was ruling the state with lies and dece¬it despite the love the citizens had for him.
“While we are praying for the quick reco¬very of the governor and his family who have been in isolati¬on for testing posit¬ive to COVID-19, the same day he came out from isolation was the same day the sta¬te government announ¬ced the implementati¬on of property tax law, and the next day the NLC leadership released a document indicating the tripar¬tite agreement on the suspension of the payment of the new minimum wage. How can the citizens believe the governor was infected with COVID-1¬9?
“He couldn’t fumigate public places and made no provision for the unemployed pop¬ulace against hunger, but quick to look for avenue to make mo¬ney for the state. Governor Okowa should give account of what he has spent on the issue of COVID-19 and also account for his stewardship from 2015 till date.
“How can the governor be ruling us as if we are slaves and nobody is talking, includi¬ng the rubber-stamp House of Assembly me¬mbers we have. The current State Assembly cannot speak out for the citizens but are quick to approve loans for the state.
“Go to Ebonyi, Cross River or Rivers States and see what the¬ir governors are doi¬ng for the well-being of their people, yet Delta governor is looking for means to enrich himself and kinsmen. Governor Okowa is a monumental failure and should resign for his incom¬petency immediately. He has nothing to offer than hardship and deceit, he is tel¬ling Deltans that hi¬mself, his deputy and speaker will cut their salaries as if they are living on salaries, and the com¬promised labour lead¬ers in the state acc¬epted such rubbish against their own peo¬ple because of crumbs and unnecessary fe¬ar.
Despite Delta receiv¬ing the highest mont¬hly allocation and generating money more than Cross River, Ebonyi, Oyo, Adamawa and so many states in the country the go¬vernor is slamming us with hardship, yet no meaningful develo¬pmental project or policy that will bett¬er the lives of Delt¬ans for these monies he has received.”
Leadership