Minimum wage: Oyo-Ita blames ‘unrealistic demands’ for delay in implementation

The Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Winifred Oyo-Ita, on Monday attributed the delay in the full implementation of the new National Minimum Wage to the unrealistic demands by labour unions.

Oyo-Ita, who made this known on Monday in Abuja at a two-day retreat for top management staff of her office, however, said negotiations were on between the government and the unions.

The retreat on Manpower Development Institutes and Federal Training Centres, was on the 2017-2020 Federal Civil Service Strategy and Implementation Plan (FCSSIP).

It was reported that the FCSSIP was articulated to drive the transformation of the Nigerian civil service in line with global standard.

Oyo-Ita said the unrealistic demands were put forward by the Senior Staff Unions among the labour leaders in the negotiations.

“President Muhammadu Buhari is committed to implementing the new national minimum wage and that is why the presidential committee on the consequential adjustment arising from the minimum wage has been sitting to deliberate on it.

“And in fact, has sat with the union leadership within the public service to come out with the consequential adjustment arising from the new minimum wage.

“There were a few, what I will call unrealistic demands from the unions.

“So as not to continue delaying the implementation of the very dear policy of Mr President, we had to go ahead and seek his approval to implement the minimum wage effective from April,” she said.

She explained that the decision was to pave way for the federal government to continue with the discussions on the consequential adjustment.

Oyo-Ita said that the federal government would not allow the demands of the senior staff unions to affect those the minimum wage was largely meant to address, the low income earners.

She, however, said the conversation on the controversial issues was still ongoing with all the unions, particularly the senior staff unions.

Oyo-Ita used the retreat to task the management staff to improve themselves for quality service delivery in their workplaces.

According to her, the retreat is to engage all manpower development institutes on the vision of the FCSSIP, especially as it relates to capacity development and training.

Dr Magdalene Ajani, the Permanent Secretary, Service Policies and Strategies Office, while speaking earlier, said the retreat was designed to sensitise top management of the OHCSF, on the implementation of 2017-2020 FCSSIP.

Ajani said that the vision was to reposition Nigeria`s federal public service for better performance in tandem with the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP) 2017-2020, which chartered a new course for the service.

In her address, Mrs Cecilia Gayya, Director-General, Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, said the college appreciated the vision of the Office of Head of Service of the Federation (OHCSF) for developing a strategic document for human capacity building for civil servants.

Gayya explained that the strategy would fill the gaps in managerial ideas for effective and efficient management of civil service in Nigeria.