Lagos Public Servants Reject 25% Salary Increase

LAGOS, Jan 04, (THEWILL) – Those expecting an early resolution to the dispute in Lagos State between the state government and its workers will have to wait longer as workers today rejected in its entirety a proposed 25 percent salary increase, which Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) approved in the last quarter of 2010. Instead, employees have advocated for a 62.035 percent salary increase equivalent to the N18, 000 minimum wage the Federal Government had earlier approved for their counterparts in the federal services. The Labour Movement in Lagos State Workers, a group acting on behalf the entire state workers, expressed the dissatisfaction of its members in a circular alert distributed in the state secretariat early Tuesday. The alert titled: ‘Implementation of N18, 000 Minimum Wage’, said the workers’ union had made a demand for the implementation of N18, 000 minimum wage for public service workers, which led to the inauguration of a committee to harmonise salary structure in public service on 16 August, 2010. The movement said some of the recommendations of the committee, which concluded its assignment last October, were that 20-25 percent of total revenue accruing to the state government or 20-25 percent of Internally Generated Revenue, IGR be set aside for Recurrent Expenditure, which included salaries/wages, grants, among others. It added that the real negotiation began on November 30, 2010, lamenting that while negotiation was still in progress, the governor, in his 2011 budget presentation to the Assembly announced a 25 percent salary increase across board. “We want to categorically inform workers and the general public that labour was not part of that pronouncement. To implement the N18, 000 minimum wage will require a minimum of 62.035 percent increase. Labour has submitted its working paper based on the 62.035 percent across board for implementation,” it said. It advised workers to “wait for further directives from the Labour movement-Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Trade Union Congress, TUC and Joint Negotiation Committee, JNC. Distorted salary structure will no longer be accepted.”