Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has alerted the nation of looming strikes in the health and judiciary sectors as well as core service over un-reviewed wages.
This is as NLC called on all tiers of government and other employers of Labour to immediately pay the cost of living allowances to all workers in line with the global trends to address the global economic challenges.
President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, who spoke against the backdrop of the recently suspended eight months strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, lamented that the judiciary, medical and health salary structures including the core civil service have not been reviewed since 2013 contrary to the provisions of their agreements that provided for a review in three years.
According to him, “There are many sectors today and some of them because also they are not allowed to try to advance their issues, they have remained silent, but it is eating them up very deep. Out of these is the Judiciary. I know as a matter of fact, from 2009 to date, the salary and remuneration of the Judiciary have not been reviewed. It has been very, very difficult for them to discharge their responsibilities, without fear or favour and with job satisfaction. Imagine the challenges that have actually affected the economy from 2009 to date including spiral inflation. If you are earning X amount as of 2009, how do you survive in this current situation?
“As a matter of fact, the medical and health salary structure also has been reviewed last in 2009. It is also 13 years now, and they are due for review. The health service structure and all other salary structures including even the core civil service have not been reviewed. The provision of those agreements provided that every three years those agreements should be reviewed, but nothing has been done up till now.
“I think we should have learned some lessons from what has happened recently in the tertiary institutions and proactively look at those other sectors that have similar challenges that needed to also be addressed at this point in time. I mentioned just a few of them, the medical and health salary scale, and also that of the judiciary, which was last reviewed in 2009. It is a wake-up call and we must do needful and act now before it is too late. The workers are becoming very restive because the challenges in the economy are affecting every worker that is on fixed wages. It is high time we proactively looked at those issues instead of reacting to where Unions raise the issues.”
On the need for the cost of living allowance, Wabba said: “I can say without missing words, if you look at the figures, particularly inflation figures, unemployment figures, the challenge in the social sector, it is clear that our economy is not doing well. Basically, we have no reason for the economy not to do well because we are a country that is well-endowed. Yes, people may say, the challenge is global, but solutions have to be found locally. As I speak, many countries around the world are finding solutions locally to respond to global challenges.
“The challenge in the economy and the high-wire inflation trend is a global phenomenon. But every country is responding locally to the challenge. In my capacity as the President of the International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC, which represents not less than 205 million workers in 163 countries, I have visited many countries. The last one I visited was Tunisia where I had the rare privilege of having a one-on-one with the President of Tunisia. From the conversation we had, I have been able to understand that they responded effectively to actually increased salary across the board with 7 per cent.
“Ghana did the same and so the trend globally is there is a salary review to address the high cost of living, including the cost of living allowance with between seven and 15 per cent. These countries, Tunisia, Ghana, our neighbour, and South Africa, all of these have taken steps to respond to the challenges in the economy. They have also made sure that workers do not suffer the consequences of the challenges in the economy. This is what is expected.
“Unions do not need to be shouting, or issuing strike notices if we are on the same page to look at issues and how to respond to them effectively. Workers don’t become slaves and be at the receiving end if something is not proactively done to address their challenges.
