Nigerian Federal Workers Demand Payment Of Wage Arrears, Salary Harmonisation
The Federal Workers Forum (FWF) has called on the President Bola Tinubu-led government to immediately pay the outstanding three months wage award owed to federal workers, harmonise salaries across the public service, and improve welfare conditions.
In a statement issued on Wednesday signed by the National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Andrew Emelieze, the workers group said the government’s failure to fulfill its wage obligations had caused severe hardship among its workforce.
“The refusal of the federal government to pay up the balance of the outstanding three months wage award as promised by the Accountant General of the Federation has shown clearly how our government has been treating her workers. Same also has been the case for so many backlog of arrears owed the federal workers especially promotion arrears, in some cases over ten years backlog owed the federal workers in Nigeria,” the statement read.
The forum noted that the ₦35,000 wage award was introduced as a cost of living allowance after the removal of fuel subsidy and the devaluation of the naira. However, the group accused the government of inconsistent and delayed payments.
“Our government eventually decided to give a paltry sum of ₦35,000 to all federal workers irrespective of their grade levels.”
”The payment since it’s implementation has been inconsistent and staggering, most times it has taken the Federal Workers Forum to cry out before payments are made. As a matter of facts , the federal government has been very unfaithful in the payment of the wage award, thus the purpose of setting up the wage award to cushion the horrible effects of fuel subsidy removal has been defeated.”
According to the forum, the payment of wage awards stopped in February 2024 following the implementation of the new national minimum wage in August 2024. At that time, the government owed workers five months of wage awards covering March to July 2024.
After several protests, the Accountant General reportedly promised to pay the arrears and fully implement the new minimum wage. “Most unfortunately,” the group said, “the federal government has only managed to pay just two months remaining the balance of May, June and July 2024: ₦35,000× 3 = ₦105,000 is what the federal government is owing each federal government workers since last year, over 15 months now.”
The forum described the situation as “a national embarrassment,” accusing the government of “economic sabotage” and “insensitivity to the plights of the federal workers.”
It also faulted the implementation of the new minimum wage, alleging that it failed to reflect any real increase in workers’ earnings.
“The same Accountant General of the federation that earlier promised the full implementation of the new national minimum wage as widely published in the media had turn around to say that the new national minimum wage has been fully implemented.”
”We the federal workers are still in shock and in great surprise as nothing significant was added to the salaries of all federal workers. Only ₦40,000 flat was what was added to the salary of each worker across all levels and their was also heavy taxation on the ₦40,000, hence all workers got less than ₦40,000 as the promised new national minimum wage.”
”It is horrible to note that despite the increase in the price of petrol, the devaluation of the naira, the increased national budget and the rising cost of living ; only ₦40,000 was what was added to the salaries of the federal government workers in Nigeria.”
The forum criticised the organised labour for what it described as failure to defend workers’ interests. It said, “Most painful aspect of it all is that the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) , the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and their affiliate unions have endorsed these ridiculous ill-treatment of the federal government workers.”
The statement added that many workers now live in debt, unable to afford basic needs, while their wages no longer match the cost of living.
It further accused President Tinubu of failing to keep his campaign promises on workers’ welfare.
“President Tinubu, we are really very disappointed in you, your poise for our welfare is really very abysmally very poor, you are insensitive to our plights, this account for the ‘Japa’ syndrome among the federal workers and the recent wave of agitations, strikes and protest. Today ASUU is being pushed to the wall and our collective future is at stake.”
“This current ₦70,000 minimum wage is a slave wage, we call for its immediate abolision,” the forum declared.
Among other demands, the Federal Workers Forum called on the government to: “pay up now the balance of the outstanding three months wage award.clear the backlog of promotion arrears.”
“Workout a cost of living allowance for the workers, preferably pay 30% of our salaries as cost of living allowance.”
They also demanded the resumption of the “monthly payment of ₦35,000 wage award pending the payment of a living wage and implementation of the 40% peculiar allowance and pay 14 months outstanding arrears.”
The group also demanded the “immediate abolision of the contributory pension funds,” citing non-remittance of deductions for four months. Other requests included abolishing compulsory housing funds, providing free healthcare for workers and retirees, and reintroducing leave bonus and domestic servants’ allowances for directorate cadre.
The group further opposed the proposed 5% petrol tax and called for the reinstatement of fuel subsidy.
“We call on government to honour the agreement reached with our university lectures and pay up all the backlog of arrears owed the lectures,” the statement added.
The forum urged NLC, TUC, and affiliate unions to “call for a warning strike to demand for improved welfare for the federal workers,” and expressed support for ASUU’s ongoing warning strike.
In closing, the statement read: “We the federal workers are in solidarity with ASUU as they embark on the warning strike and we call on the NLC/TUC to declare a one-day national sympathy strike in solidarity with the ASUU struggles.”
Hafsoh Isiaq is a graduate of Linguistics. An avid writer committed to creative, high-quality research and news reportage. She has considerable experience in writing and reporting across a variety of platforms including print and online.
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