By John Ikani
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has urged the government to review the retirement age and years of service for civil servants across the public service.
Speaking at the 2023 Workers’ Day celebrations in Abuja, NLC President Joe Ajaero called for an increase to age 65 and 40 years of service.
Ajaero also called for a review of core civil servants’ salaries to address the gap between their emoluments and those in other public service segments.
“Only few other establishments, including the core civil service, are now left out,” he said.
“We are, therefore, demanding that the age of retirement and length of service in the entire public service, including the civil service, be reviewed upward to 65 years of age and 40 years of service”
The union has previously demanded salary reviews, but has yet to receive attention from the federal government.
Ajaero highlighted the fact that civil servants possess the same educational qualifications and experience as their counterparts in other segments of the public service, so it is unclear why there is a disparity in their salaries.
“We have continued over the years to demand that the salaries of core civil servants be beefed up to narrow the gap between their emoluments and those in other segments of the public service,” he said, adding that all civil servants possessed the same qualifications and experience.
The NLC president also called for the extension of years of service to be implemented across all sectors of the public service, noting that other sectors had already benefitted from the review.
“Only few other establishments, including the core civil service, are now left out,” he said.
On the issue of gratuity payment, Ajaero noted that union leaders had raised the matter with the government multiple times without any positive response.
“We have consistently presented the issue of gratuity payment to the government but nothing has been done in that regard,” he said.
Ajaero further explained the concept of gratuity payment, stating that it is meant to provide retiring workers with a monetary benefit to support their post-retirement plans.
“Thus, gratuity is a monetary benefit given by an employer to his/her employee at the time of retirement without the worker making any financial contribution whatsoever to the fund,” he said.
He also emphasized that the Pension Act did not abolish gratuity payment, and called for its restoration in public sectors where it has been stopped.
The NLC president concluded by urging the government to take swift action on these issues, which have been longstanding concerns for civil servants.
