TheCable

Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, says the federal government is reviewing “peculiar allowances” and not workers’ salaries.

Ngige had, on Tuesday, said the government would soon make some pronouncements on salary increase for workers.

But in a statement on Friday, Olajide Oshundun, head of public relations of the labour ministry, said the focus of the review is “peculiar allowances” for workers.

“The honourable minister wishes to clarify that the increase he talked about was on the remuneration and emoluments of the affected workers, especially the civil servants. The Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS) through the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (OSGF) received recommendations for review of allowances of many ministries, departments and agencies of government,” Olajide said.

“Because the salary component is not being reviewed for now by the committee, it addressed the allowances component of the requests including the peculiar allowance for Federal Civil Servants, amongst others.

“In Labour parlance, as per payment for compensation for work done, remuneration and emoluments is made up of salary component and earned allowance component.

“Therefore, the federal government through the PCS could not have engaged on the review of salaries without involving the workers through their Unions, represented by the two Labour Federation of workers in Nigeria – the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).

“Salary review or renegotiation is part of social dialogue and the product is usually a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) usually agreed to by both parties – employers and employees.

“For the avoidance of doubt, the honourable minister made it clear to the press corp that it is still work in progress, and that the end-product of this review of allowances will be submitted to Mr President for consideration and final approval, and that this was one of the Labour issues he briefed him on that day.”

Oshundun added that the government took the decision “on compassionate grounds without any prodding or threat to strike”.