*demands 100 percent salary increase to cushion high inflation
By Michael Oche
The Non-Academic Staff Union of
Allied and Education Institutions (NASU) on Wednesday called for Cost Of Living Adjustment (COLA) of 100 percent for its members in response to the high inflation being experienced in the country.
The union said the current inflation rate of 20.8 percent has ensured that many workers still live below the poverty line.
President of NASU, Comrade Makolo Hassan stated this in his remarks at the National Executive Council (NEC) of the union in Abuja.
Comrade Hassan also said the union has observed that over two months after it suspended its 4 months strike, the Federal Government is yet to commence the process of implementing the agreement it reached with the workers.
He sake, “over two months after the Agreement signed by the Federal Government with the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of NASU and SSANU, which resulted in the suspension of the four months old strike, we have observed that the processes expected to be put in place for the actualisation of the content of the Agreement are yet to be put in place.
He said, “We therefore use the opportunity of the ongoing NEC meeting to call on the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu to ensure that the processes for the implementation of the agreement commence immediate before the members of NASU will start another round of agitation.”
He advised that in order to put a stop to the cycle of strikes in the educational and allied institutions sectors, government should always implement agreements it freely entered with the union.
Furthermore, he also said collective bargaining in the educational and allied institutions sectors should be institutionalised.
Speaking further, the NASU president said the recent salary increase of 23.5% by the government after negotiation cannot hold water with the current inflation rate of 20.8 percent .
He said “NASU is hereby demanding for a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) of 100% in order to take workers’ salaries from below the poverty line to the poverty line”
He called for tax exemption for Nigerian Workers
He said higher personal income tax has made it impossible for Nigerian workers to survive with their megre salaries.
Comrade Makolo Hassan lamented that in Nigeria today, it is only workers that are paying accurate tax, while other multiple national are given concession.
According to him, “Nigeria has a very low- Ievel tax-to-GDP ratio. This makes it harder for Government to respond to economic crisis, manage and deliver basic services, education, health, and infrastructure.
“Nigerian workers, who are the ones that should benefit from tax concessions, are the only ones bearing the burden of taxation in the country.
“High personal income tax regimes have made it impossible for the majority of workers to Iive on their salaries as their disposable income has been seriously degraded below the poverty line, so they cannot get enough to live on.
“We hereby call for tax concessions for Nigerian workers and exemption for any worker earning Minimum Wage and below”.
General Secretary of NASU, Prince Peters Adeyemi while also fielding questions from reporters during the NEC meeting, said the union expects the Federal Government to make arrangements for payment of salary arrears for the four months their strike.
He said a moratorium given to the Federal Government which elapses by November 2022, should serve as a veritable opportunity for government to sit down and begin to address the existing demands by the Unions, one of which is the salary arrears.
Adeyemi pointed out that under no circumstance would the government sweep the issue under the carpet, especially when the government obliged the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) similar gesture after they suspended their two months strike.
Asked if the Federal Government is still disposed to offsetting the salary arrears, going by its initial stance of ‘no work, no pay’, Adeyemi responded saying, “That is the next issue, you see they say that if there is a fire in the house, you first of all have to make sure that you that want to put off the fire must be safe first, if you get consumed in the fire, you can’t save anybody.
“Now the process of talking about unpaid salaries will start, nobody will say the schools are closed, this is the ideal time to begin to appeal to those who have taken this hard stance, and we believe that this hard stance were as a result of the fact that the schools were under lock and key.
“I have confidence as a union person that those salaries will be paid because it has been paid to the guys in the health sector, two months, this Minister of Labour and Employment facilitated the payment, and he is still there, I am confident he will facilitate this payment”.
