Federal Civil Servants on Thursday night confirmed the receipt of their October 2023 wage awards months after a temporary suspension of payment.
Recall that the payment of N35,000 wage award was an agreement reached between the Federal Government and the Organized Labour as part of the moves to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit popularly known as petrol.
President Bola Tinubu had declared during his Independence Day speech that “low-grade workers” in the Federal Civil Service would be awarded a wage of N25,000.
The amount was then increased to N35,000 following discussions with the organised labour unions.
The government, in a memo signed by the Chairman, National Salaries Wages and Income Commission, Ekpo Nta, stated that the payment of the wage award would begin to take effect from September 1, 2023.
However, findings by our correspondent indicated that the government only paid the wage award for September.
Civil servants in Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies had said they only received the wage awards for September 2023.
The unfortunate development came amidst reports that the government had slashed the wage award allocation by the sum of N100bn in the 2023 supplementary budget.
The Nigeria Labour Congress had described the government’s action as dishonorable, while the Trade Union Congress also urged the government to pay civil servants the wage awards or risk industrial action.
A senior civil servant who confided in Saturday PUNCH, however, said some civil servants had started receiving the wage award for October 2023.
“In my agency, we received the arrears for October 2023 and nothing else was paid again. The wage award for November and December was not paid; it (the one paid) is only for October 2023. Remember they owed us the sum of N105,000.”
The spokesperson for the Office of the Accountant General, Bawa Mokwa, however said all civil servants would receive their wage awards as soon as possible.
