Pay Relativity: Kogi Govt, Labour Set Up Committee

The Kogi State Government and the organised labour have agreed to set up a committee to look into the issue of pay relativity being demanded by civil servants in the state.

Mr Egun Abdul, the Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Kogi State Chapter, told  newsmen in Lokoja yesterday, that the committee would be inaugurated today.

Abdul said that he would be joined by two other union leaders, Mr James Odaodu of the Joint Public Service Negotiating Council, and Mr Abdullahi Ganiyu of the Trade Union Congress, to represent the workers on the committee.

He added that the decision to set up a separate committee to handle the issue of pay relativity, was arrived at during last Thursday’s meeting between the unions and government representatives.

According to him, the committee’s main task is to look into ways of narrowing the gap in the salaries of permanent secretaries and directors in the state civil service.

A permanent secretary in Kogi State receives over N350,000 as salary monthly, while a director, who is next in rank receives N65,000.

The states’ workers and their counterparts in all the 21 local government areas had on October 9 embarked on an indefinite strike which had crippled the state socially and economically.

The strike was triggered by government’s refusal to implement some agreements it signed with the workers.

Some of the agreements include the implementation of the 27.5 per cent allowance for teachers and the implementation of HATTIS and CONHESS salary scales for workers in the health sector.

The agreement also includes the non-streamlining of the salaries of 1,500 teachers employed in 2008.

Abdul said that the workers would not go back to work until all the agreements were implemented by the government.