*Allege apartheid discriminatory wage payment in federal public service
By; BAYO AKAMO, Ibadan
Worried by the agitation for new minimum wage, the Federal Workers Forum (FWF) on Monday, asked the Federal Government to pay ₦300,000 monthly as living wage to Federal Government workers
The forum expressed this in a communique issued at the end of an on line meeting of Federal Workers nationwide signed by the Forum National Coordinator Comrade Andrew Emelieze made available to journalists in Ibadan
FWF in the communique stressed that the proposed living wage will reflect the harmonization of wages and pensions in the federal public service, adding, ” issues of a fair and just minimum wage will promote social justice, productivity and also help to fight against corruption”.
” We are concerned as a federal workforce about the issues of the nascent discussions on the new national minimum wage. We believe strongly that issues of a fair and just minimum wage will promote social justice, productivity and also help to fight against corruption” it said.
The Forum added, ” We therefore, while supporting the call for a just living wage for the Nigerian workers, we also demand for a federal living wage that will reflect the harmonization of wages and pensions in the federal public service”.
” Over the years, it has been an apartheid discriminatory wage payment in the federal public service. While a few Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) are well paid, majority of the MDA’s are discriminated against”.
It stressed further ” Its so bad that the Directors and their likes in the affected MDA’s earns far less than officers very junior to them in the juicy MDA’s”, adding, “The case has always been that some MDA’s are finance generating and so they must be better paid”.
” It is time to stop this discriminatory payment. It is time to terminate this ugly fallacy that promotes segregation and inequality. All work types are complimentary and so their should not be room for any primitive pay discrimination in the federal public service in Nigeria”.
While appreciating President Tinubu for the ₦35,000 wage award, the Forum said “we make bold to say that the ₦35,000 palliative did not solve the economic challenges faced by the federal government workers in Nigeria. It has been an hellish existence for the federal workers since the removal of subsidy on petrol and the subsequent devaluation of the naira”.
FWF in the communique listed its demands as federal wage structure that will harmonize all salaries and pensions in the federal public service, a federal minimum wage of ₦300,000 monthly, a federal maximum wage of ₦1.5 million monthly, a federal pension that will reflect proportionate changes with workers pay rise.”
It listed other demands as ” that provisions be made for the return of leave bonus, that the federal government should make provisions for long service award package for workers and that the new national minimum wage takes off officially on April 1st, 2024 and that we expect the announcement of the new national minimum wage latest on Workers’ day May 1st, 2024.
,”It has been the story of hardship everywhere ; survival has been very difficult and everything has been nauseating. However, federal workers have been enduring this hardship, and now that the government and labour is discussing the new national minimum wage, we demand that
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