Group Kicks Over Proposed 20,000 Monthly Salary For SPW Beneficiaries As Against 30,000 Minimum Wage

….Says FG Has Violated National Minimum Wage Act

The Initiative for Citizens’ Rights, Accountability and Development (ICRAD), a non governmental organization has criticized the Federal Government’s Special Public Works (SPW) Programme designed to employ 774000 Nigerians into various public works for period of three months.

The criticism came in the wake of the announcement by the Federal Government that the selection committees across the 774 local government areas have been given the nod to commence work immediately with additional details that the programme is expected to commence in October while the employees will be entitled to the sum of N60,000 divided into N20,000 per month for the three months period of engagement.

The Executive Director of ICRAD, Hassan Luqman, Esq in a statement made available to CityMirrorNews in Abuja, stated that ‘as commendable as the plan of the federal government to engage Nigerians in our local communities in various works so as to entitle them to some earnings and reduce the negative impacts of Covid-19 on the earnings of many Nigerians especially those residing in the rural areas, it is however disappointing that the federal government cannot pay the national minimum wage to these special public workers to be engaged’.

He continued by saying that ‘this is not only disheartening, it is a flagrant violation of the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2019. The National Minimum Wage Act stipulates that no employee should earn less than N30,000 per month. This is the benchmark set by the law of the land brought to being by this administration. It is therefore, curious why this administration will not adhere to the provisions of the law it brought to being.

‘Perhaps, the federal government thinks that the special public work programme is a favour being done to Nigerians; therefore, it can pay any amount it deems fit however indecent. The programme is not a favour but an expected intervention programme that every reasonable government should embrace in order to make life easy for the masses in the aftermath of the pandemic. Therefore, those engage deserve to earn nothing less than the minimum wage prescribed by the law. This is more so in view of the biting rise in the cost of living, falling value of naira and loss of earnings being experienced by the masses every day.’

He further stated that ‘There is no gainsaying the fact that those to be engaged are to work full time for three months in various sectors. The federal government cannot therefore hide under the part time exemption to deny workers of their adequate earnings. The Honourable Minister of State for Labour and Productivity, Mr Festus Keyamo as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria is expected to know this and be in the fore-front of ensuring that Nigerians earn decent living from any job given.

“We therefore, call on the federal government to make an upward review of the three months earnings of the social workers to N90,000 in order to meet up with the dictates of the law and to give decent earnings to Nigerians.’