President Bola Tinubu-led government on Sunday evening announced that the N25,000 provisional wage increment announced for low-grade workers is now applicable to all levels of civil servants.
The announcement was made by the chief of staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila.
This is coming after the organised labour, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have rejected President Bola Tinubu’s N25,000 Provisional wage increment for the average low-grade worker.
The organised labour during a meeting with government officials had called for a 100 per cent increment.
The President during his nationwide broadcast on Sunday had said the increment would be for lower civil servants.
He said: “Based on our talks with labour, business and other stakeholders, we are introducing a provisional wage increment to enhance the federal minimum wage without causing undue inflation. For the next six months, the average low-grade worker shall receive an additional Twenty-Five Thousand naira per month.
“Commencing this month, the social safety net is being extended through the expansion of cash transfer programs to an additional 15 million vulnerable households.”
Gbajabiamila, however, revealed that the earlier decision of the President has been reviewed.
He said, “There was a lot of chatter on Twitter about the issue of low-income workers only falling into the category of the provisional wage increase. And we did communicate with the President and he quickly did say and agreed that all categories of workers will be given the wage bill. There is nothing like low income, median income or high income.”
He expressed optimism that the labour unions would backtrack on the nationwide strike planned for Tuesday.
Gbajabiamila said, “Hopefully, we expect that Labour will call a meeting of their various branches and executive tomorrow to do present the agreements that have been reached, and we pray and we believe and we hope that the strike will be called off on Tuesday.”