Shema reacts to labour strike •As senior civil servants join strike action

Posted by admin Katsina, State News Sunday, September 18th, 2011

Katsina State governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Shema has reacted to the indefinite strike action embarked upon by the state chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) over the implementation of the new national minimum wage in the state.

Addressing the people of the state in a live broadcast shortly after the state executive council meeting, Governor Shema said government would pay the new wage, but that the issue of tabulation was what state government and NLC representatives were working on.

Explaining the situation, the governor said that after government had met with labour over the new wage issue, a table was proposed to them for consideration, but was however turned down.

“That table put the payment of Level 1 Step 1 at N18, 394.30 and the last step on Level 1 Step 1 at N21, 496.46.”

Shema added that after submitting the table to the labour, they raised some issues explaining that, “the increase across board on higher scale is not attractive enough,” and that “anomalies exist between the grade levels due to the addition of some extraneous items like leave grant and overtime into the salary.”

He maintained that the state government “received this as a serious concern and redirected the team from government side to look into these complaints and adjust them.”

He averred that the state government had looked into the issue for the second time and had adjusted accordingly, “which now brings the minimum wage of Level 1 Step 1 to N18,656.60” among other issues raised.

He said the table had been forwarded to the labour to look into the new adjustments before further negotiations would continue.

Governor Shema recalled that the committee’s recommendation to increase the state’s revenue base was a necessary factor in ensuring the sustainability of paying the new minimum wage.

Meanwhile, senior civil servants in the state have joined the on-going strike action embarked upon by the state chapter of the labour union.

In a statement made available to Arewa Today, signed by the association’s chairman, Alhaji Lawal Bosa, the body noted that the decision to join in the strike action became necessary to ensure justice for workers in the state.

According to the statement, “the association had under the Trade Union Congress TUC, directed its members to embark on the indefinite strike action to ensure the implementation of the new minimum wage across the state”.

“The so-called table payment developed by the state government was porous, unjustifiable, fallacious, ambiguous and misleading”, it stated.

-Tribunewp_posts