MINISTER OF LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT, SENATOR CHRIS NGIGE DISCLOSE THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PLANS TO HARMONIZE SALARIES AND WAGES OF MDAs

President Muhammadu Buhari has mandated the presidential committee on salaries and wages to review and realign earnings of employees of ministries, agencies, and parastatals.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige disclosed this and said part of the objective is to check disparity in payment of salaries and wages as well as prone the running cost of governance.

He also said the motive of putting together the committee was to address the rising cost of personnel in the budget of the federation.

Ngige added that the committee had made some suggestions to the federal government on how to fuse some parastatals that are doing the same job.

Contrary to reports that the federal government has adopted the Oronsaye-led committee’s report, the minister said the committee would have to evaluate the role of agencies and parastatals and ensure that they are structured to perform optimally.

He explained that the establishment of the new ministry of humanitarian affairs, disaster management and social development was a product of such creative thinking by the government.

The Minister was quoted saying, “We are looking at something that is like the work Oronsaye did, but in Oronsaye’s committee report there are some good aspects of it and there are many things that are not good there. Even if you take the White paper, it disagreed in the main with about one-third of Oronsaye’s recommendation, about 40 per cent of the recommendation and another 20 – 25 per cent of the recommendation”.

“The white paper committee never supported the recommendation or said no to the recommendation they just said noted. So, there is no way one can use it for a very essential report because the white paper committee didn’t do good work. What I am telling you, in essence, is the area of reference of the Oronsaye’s committee. If our government sets up our own committee like we are doing now in, what the presidential committee on salary and wages are going to do now is to put our recommendation into that of economic sustainability committee. Luckily, the finance minister is a member and I am also a member of the Economic Sustainability Committee (ESC) So, the unions have no need to cry and shout”.

With regard to fears being expressed by labour unions over the possible loss of jobs in the federal establishments following the implementation of the report of the committee, Ngige said though job loss was not intended, the mechanism would be in place in such a way that there would be no pain.