Organised Labour under the aegis of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has hailed the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HOS), Ms Winifred Oyo-Ita, for keying into the demand of the Union for salary increase in the core Civil Service.
The commendation came on the heels of a statement credited to the HOS at a sensitisation workshop on the 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP), Abuja, to the effect that the emoluments of 80,000 Civil Servants who are the engine room of the Government should be increased since currently they are the least paid in the Public Service.
In a press statement issued in Lagos yesterday, the ASCSN National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, recalled that in 2015, the Union presented a Memorandum to the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) and demanded for an upward salary review for core Civil Servants since they are the least paid in the Public Service.
“Our demand was predicated on the fact that the current pay structure in operation in the Civil Service has become unrealistic and inadequate such that workers can no longer meet their basic needs, a scenario that is impacting negatively on their morale.
“Besides, out of more than 12 different salary structures in the public service, that of the core Civil Service is the lowest even though the bulk of the Government work is carried out by Civil Servants,” the Union posited. The ASCSN expressed the hope that the statement of the HOS would galvanised the Government to do the needful by beefing up the Salaries of core Civil Servants to be at par with that of other segments of the Public Service.
“There must be equal pay for job of equal value more-so because the employees concerned have similar or the same qualifications,” the Union emphasised.
According to the ASCSN, the last salary adjustment in the Civil Service was done in 2010 and since then, no salary increase has been granted to Civil Servants even though the cost of living had continued to rise because of spiral inflation.
It urged the Government to see the wake-up call of the Head of Service as an opportunity to right the wrong done to Civil Servants in the past decades by paying them remunerations that are obtainable in other segments of the Public Service.
