11-28-2017, 12:50 PM
Read more at: https://dailytimes.ng/headlines/pay-work...ells-govs/
…We’ll pay on one condition- Govs President Muhammadu Buhari has charged state governors to ensure that they pay all the salaries owed workers before Christmas, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports. The president gave the charge on Monday, when he met with the governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Many states are still owing workers several months of salaries and allowances. The Nigeria Labour Congress( NLC) has been up in arms against state governors who have owed civil servants salary arrears, some states running into over 20 months. For example, states like Kogi, Benue, Osun, Bayelsa and Oyo owe their workers backlog of salaries, causing frictions between the states and labour unions. The Daily Times can report that cases of poverty, diseases, malnutrition and in extreme cases, suicide have characterized some of the debtor- states. In Kogi State, under Governor Yahya Bello, the celebrated case of a deputy director in the state’s civil service, Mr. Edward Soje, who committed suicide over unpaid salaries, is still fresh in the memories. Despite the Bello’s claim that the preponderance of ghost workers had overbloated the state’s wage bill, months after several verification exercises had been concluded, the workers say that they are yet to be paid. The argued that they are continually losing their critical members to poverty, diseases, squalor and deaths; and had even gone further to seek the immediate and passionate intervention of Buhari to save them from extinction despite the payment of Paris Funds’ refund’s tranches, statutory monthly allocations and bailouts In Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom had been contending with the labour unions over backlog of unpaid salaries, which had paralysed activities in the state, and had pitched the governor with the unions. We need living wage, not minimum wage, says NLC Labour leaders on Sunday expressed optimism that the Federal Government would give workers a living wage not minimum wage. President Muhammdu Buhari on Thursday approved the appointment of a 30-member tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee for the negotiation of a new National Minimum Wage. The labour leaders, who are members of the committee, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos ahead of the committee inauguration scheduled for Monday in Abuja. The committee is made up of persons from the public sector (federal and state governments) and the private sector (members of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) Mr. Ayuba Wabba, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) told NAN that, “Our expectation is that the demand of labour will be met. “We will discuss with open mind to ensure that we achieve our aims and objectives,’’ Wabba said. He said that the meeting with the tripartite committee would be a social dialogue and collective bargaining discussion. According to him, the inauguration is long overdue and effort would be made to fast track negotiations to ensure that workers and pensioners get their accrued benefits. He said that labour would discuss issues relating to rate of Naira because the present exchange rate had increased from the time N56,000 was being proposed by labour. Mr Peter Ozo-Eson, NLC General Secretary, also said that the committee would discuss many issues affecting the minimum wage and the way forward. According to Ozo-Eson, it is over two years since the organised labour proposed N56,000 as minimum wage to the government; and so will consider a number of socio-economic indices to take its action. He said that the organised labour was looking forward to the inauguration because the committee was made up of a tripartite group that would discuss issues affecting the Nigerian workers. “We look forward to the inauguration which I believe will discuss the facts and economic realities when it starts negotiation.’’ …urges FG’s committee to consider pensioners,’ workers’ plights The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Tripartite Committee for the new National Minimum Wage to consider the plight of workers and pensioners during its deliberations and initiate decisions that will improve the lives of the generality of Nigerians. Wabba made the call in an interview with NAN in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, appointed a 30-member Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of the New National Minimum Wage for workers in the country. The committee has its members across both federal, state and the private sector and would be inaugurated on Nov. 27. While commending the President for the appointment of the committee, Wabba said it was timely and long overdue. He said,“We hope that after the inauguration, the committee can commence work immediately so that we can cover some mileage and also cover the times that have been lost. “This is something that workers have long anticipated and our expectation is that we want a speedy process and that the fact that the issues are very obvious. “ If you look at the exchange rate, the N18,000 Minimum Wage of 2011 when we signed the agreement, it was almost equivalent to N110 dollars; today, the N18,000 is less than 46 dollars.” The NLC president said that the consideration was imperative to address the issue of social imbalance, inequality and the wide gap of poverty in the country. Pensioners want return of gratuity Pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) have called on the Federal Government to reintroduce the payment of gratuity for pensioners. The union accused the government of shying away from its responsibility as there’s no provision in the Pension Reforms Act that outlawed the payment of gratuity to Pensioners. Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, Comrade Sylva Nwaiwu expressed the pensioners position at the second post inaugural congress of the union in Abuja. He called for a review in their entitlements, saying the Federal Government was indebted to pensioners who retired under the CPS, adding that they will continue to fight for their gratuity within the ambit of the law. He said, “Gratuity is a right to any public worker who retired from service after 10 to 35 years of service. “The introduction of the CPS was to address the burden of monthly pension liabilities on the government and not that of gratuity. Hence, there is section of the Pension Reform Act before and as amended by the 2014 pension reform act that explicitly remove gratuity as a legitimate right to retirees. “In the old Defined Benefit Scheme, government pays gratuity to the retirees; and thereafter, continued to pay monthly pensions. In the CPS, government is restricted to the payment of gratuity, while the monthly pension of retirees accrue from the combined contributions by government and the workers, but from the inception of the CPS, government has tactically ignored the legitimacy of this important factor in the engagement agreement, without any legal or constitutional justification, thus short changing the CPS retirees.”
Read more at: https://dailytimes.ng/headlines/pay-work...ells-govs/
…We’ll pay on one condition- Govs President Muhammadu Buhari has charged state governors to ensure that they pay all the salaries owed workers before Christmas, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports. The president gave the charge on Monday, when he met with the governors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. Many states are still owing workers several months of salaries and allowances. The Nigeria Labour Congress( NLC) has been up in arms against state governors who have owed civil servants salary arrears, some states running into over 20 months. For example, states like Kogi, Benue, Osun, Bayelsa and Oyo owe their workers backlog of salaries, causing frictions between the states and labour unions. The Daily Times can report that cases of poverty, diseases, malnutrition and in extreme cases, suicide have characterized some of the debtor- states. In Kogi State, under Governor Yahya Bello, the celebrated case of a deputy director in the state’s civil service, Mr. Edward Soje, who committed suicide over unpaid salaries, is still fresh in the memories. Despite the Bello’s claim that the preponderance of ghost workers had overbloated the state’s wage bill, months after several verification exercises had been concluded, the workers say that they are yet to be paid. The argued that they are continually losing their critical members to poverty, diseases, squalor and deaths; and had even gone further to seek the immediate and passionate intervention of Buhari to save them from extinction despite the payment of Paris Funds’ refund’s tranches, statutory monthly allocations and bailouts In Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom had been contending with the labour unions over backlog of unpaid salaries, which had paralysed activities in the state, and had pitched the governor with the unions. We need living wage, not minimum wage, says NLC Labour leaders on Sunday expressed optimism that the Federal Government would give workers a living wage not minimum wage. President Muhammdu Buhari on Thursday approved the appointment of a 30-member tripartite National Minimum Wage Committee for the negotiation of a new National Minimum Wage. The labour leaders, who are members of the committee, spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos ahead of the committee inauguration scheduled for Monday in Abuja. The committee is made up of persons from the public sector (federal and state governments) and the private sector (members of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) Mr. Ayuba Wabba, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) told NAN that, “Our expectation is that the demand of labour will be met. “We will discuss with open mind to ensure that we achieve our aims and objectives,’’ Wabba said. He said that the meeting with the tripartite committee would be a social dialogue and collective bargaining discussion. According to him, the inauguration is long overdue and effort would be made to fast track negotiations to ensure that workers and pensioners get their accrued benefits. He said that labour would discuss issues relating to rate of Naira because the present exchange rate had increased from the time N56,000 was being proposed by labour. Mr Peter Ozo-Eson, NLC General Secretary, also said that the committee would discuss many issues affecting the minimum wage and the way forward. According to Ozo-Eson, it is over two years since the organised labour proposed N56,000 as minimum wage to the government; and so will consider a number of socio-economic indices to take its action. He said that the organised labour was looking forward to the inauguration because the committee was made up of a tripartite group that would discuss issues affecting the Nigerian workers. “We look forward to the inauguration which I believe will discuss the facts and economic realities when it starts negotiation.’’ …urges FG’s committee to consider pensioners,’ workers’ plights The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Tripartite Committee for the new National Minimum Wage to consider the plight of workers and pensioners during its deliberations and initiate decisions that will improve the lives of the generality of Nigerians. Wabba made the call in an interview with NAN in Abuja. President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, appointed a 30-member Tripartite Committee for the negotiation of the New National Minimum Wage for workers in the country. The committee has its members across both federal, state and the private sector and would be inaugurated on Nov. 27. While commending the President for the appointment of the committee, Wabba said it was timely and long overdue. He said,“We hope that after the inauguration, the committee can commence work immediately so that we can cover some mileage and also cover the times that have been lost. “This is something that workers have long anticipated and our expectation is that we want a speedy process and that the fact that the issues are very obvious. “ If you look at the exchange rate, the N18,000 Minimum Wage of 2011 when we signed the agreement, it was almost equivalent to N110 dollars; today, the N18,000 is less than 46 dollars.” The NLC president said that the consideration was imperative to address the issue of social imbalance, inequality and the wide gap of poverty in the country. Pensioners want return of gratuity Pensioners under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) have called on the Federal Government to reintroduce the payment of gratuity for pensioners. The union accused the government of shying away from its responsibility as there’s no provision in the Pension Reforms Act that outlawed the payment of gratuity to Pensioners. Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector, Comrade Sylva Nwaiwu expressed the pensioners position at the second post inaugural congress of the union in Abuja. He called for a review in their entitlements, saying the Federal Government was indebted to pensioners who retired under the CPS, adding that they will continue to fight for their gratuity within the ambit of the law. He said, “Gratuity is a right to any public worker who retired from service after 10 to 35 years of service. “The introduction of the CPS was to address the burden of monthly pension liabilities on the government and not that of gratuity. Hence, there is section of the Pension Reform Act before and as amended by the 2014 pension reform act that explicitly remove gratuity as a legitimate right to retirees. “In the old Defined Benefit Scheme, government pays gratuity to the retirees; and thereafter, continued to pay monthly pensions. In the CPS, government is restricted to the payment of gratuity, while the monthly pension of retirees accrue from the combined contributions by government and the workers, but from the inception of the CPS, government has tactically ignored the legitimacy of this important factor in the engagement agreement, without any legal or constitutional justification, thus short changing the CPS retirees.”
Read more at: https://dailytimes.ng/headlines/pay-work...ells-govs/