…Laments adverse effect of Insecurity in Nig.
In view of the economic and security challenges ravaging the country,the National leadership of joint Public Service Negotiations Council (JPSNC) trade Union has alerted the President Mohammadu Buhari led administration on the need to review allowances of workers in the Public Service.
The JPSNC also decried the precarious situation which it said Insecurity has heaped up on the lives of workers and Nigerians at large .
The call was made in a letter titled “urgent need for upward review of allowances to entire workers in the Public Service” which was addressed to the President through the Head of Service of the Federation.
The letter dated 5th July 2022 was duly signed by both the National Chairperson joint Public Service Negotiations Council Comrade Benjamin Anthony and the National Secretary Comrade Bomoi Mohammed ibraheem, it stated that between 2019 and now, tons of events have taken over some of which have eroded the value of N30,000 minimum wage such as the inflationary rate in the country occasioned by multiple increases in exchange rate from N150.00 in 2014 to the current rate of N615.00 to a dollar; this has impacted negatively in the cost of living condition and thereby impoverished workers in the Public Service.
” The current level of insecurity has further worsened the situation as some workers who used to engage in farming and other menial activities to make ends meet no longer do so”
The JNC national leadership said that “the Council believes that despite the identified challenges, the economy generally is still growing well and the price of oil has shot up over the last year”
“A pointer is International Monetary Fund (IMF) report on Nigeria in February 2022 after recession accompanied by the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020 the real value of the economy increased by around 2.6% a year; that is doubling of the actual six of the economy in less than twenty years, this is the same amount that the minimum wage increased over the last eleven (11years) as everyone knows that we are getting poorer as workers”
“Following the above indices, the National joint Public Service Negotiations Council JPSNC Trade Union side at its meeting held on Friday 24th June 2022 resolved among other issues to call for urgent need for upward review of the following allowances:
Housing
Transport
Medical
Utility
Reinstatement of disengaged workers among others”.
The JNC believes that the review of the aforementioned allowances would go a long way to alleviate the excruciating effects of the present economic challenges faced by the workers and further boost their productivity for National development.
However,the JNC National leadership, on behalf of the entire workers had earlier commended the President of the
country for his “doggedness and pragmatic efforts put in place in handling the affairs of the country in the face of daunting challenges as well as the approval for the upward review of the New national minimum wage from Eighteen thousand to Thirty thousand naira (N18,000 to N30.000) in 2019”.