As the civil servants across the ministries, departments and agencies of the Federal Government celebrate the 25/35 per cent increment in their salary, many analysts have expressed concern that the increase will not end labour unions agitation for a new minimum wage.
Iwitnesslive recalled that the Federal Government on Tuesday announced an increase of between 25% and 35% in salary of the civil servants on the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS), Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS), Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).
The government also noted that the increases take effect from January 1.
This development has raised another concern because some analysts believed that the Federal Government ambushed the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, that are pushing for a new minimum wage since the removal of fuel subsidy in May 2023.
Although, the labour unions have not reacted to this latest development but their reactions are expected today as they celebrate Workers Day.
But some analysts believed that the action the government may trigger another demonstration by the unions or even strike that the increment was not part of the Federal Government’s proposals in their negotiations so far.
And there also concerns that this might be a strategy by the government to set the civil servants against the unions in the negotiation for the new minimum wage. The coming days would be interesting as Nigerians and indeed civil servants await the response of the labour unions because the unions are asking for more than N200,000 as the minimum wage for the workers.
