The Yobe State government has said it will spend an additional sum of N530m to meet up the payment of the new minimum wage of N18,000 for its civil servants.
The acting state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Mohammed Inuwa Gulani, disclosed this yesterday in Damaturu, while briefing newsmen on the state of affairs of negotiation with the state government on the new salary package.
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According to him, currently, the Yobe State government spends the sum of N948m on workers’ monthly salaries, and added that with the new minimum wage of N18,000, the state would now spend about N1.5b monthly to pay the salaries of its workers.
He said following the state government’s decision to possibly implement the new minimum wage salary, a negotiation committee was set up by the state government with membership drawn from both the ministries of finance, budget and planning, local governments and chieftaincy affairs, as well as the NLC, to come up with a realistic cost implication and suitable salary table, one that will be at par with the state’s peculiarities.
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He said that the committee had successfully completed its assignment and had come up with a realistic salary table for the state, a comprehensive computation of the holistic salary figure and differentials for possible adoption and consideration by the state government.
He revealed that based on the report, a civil servant on GL1, step 1 would earn a basic salary of N11,592, of which 30 per cent for rent and other differentials would make up for the total gross salary of N18,000 per month. On the other hand, a civil servant on grade GL17, step 9 would earn the total sum of N185, 261 as basic salary, with other differentials.
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He however said that though the report was ready, it could not be submitted to the government straight away, because most of the stakeholders from both sides were away to the Holy Land for this year’s Lesser Hajj.
He said that labour decided to brief the press on the issue on ground to, first of all, appeal to workers in the state to remain calm as labour was on its toes to present and defend the interest of the entire workforce in the state and debunked rumours that the NLC had been silent on the issue of salaries, because it had been “bribed and bought over”, and pointed out that the congress would resume sitting next week, as soon as the stakeholders returned, to finalise all negotiations.