BY PETER DURU, MAKURDI

Few weeks after  resolving its differences with teachers after the closure of primary schools for eight  months, Benue State is in trouble again.

The state government and the organized labour are in embroiled a dispute over the decision of the Governor Gabriel Suswam-led administration to harmonize the salaries of its workforce in order to ensure some equity in the system.
The decision draw the ire of labour who saw no sense in the policy intended to ensure that workers in the state were on uniform scale, unlike what obtained in the past where there was over 100 percent disparity between  a teacher’s  pay and  that of a core civil servant.

That discrepancy actually sparked the dispute between teachers and government which led to the   shutdown of public primary schools in the state; hence the decision of the state government to address the anomaly so as to augment the salaries of teachers.
Irked by the new policy,  labour decided to down tools and shudown the government.

Labour’s decision was reached at the end of an emergency meeting where the state government was given a 24-hour ultimatum to reverse the policy among others.
That policy  entailed that the take home pay of political office holders would be slashed by 25 percent while civil servants from grade levels seven and above are to forfeit between five and seven percent of their salaries.

Before the commencement of the new salary regime, Governor Gabriel Suswam had indicated at the last May Day rally that the state government would take the decision to enable the administration augment it’s finances in order to pay the then striking primary school teachers.
The governor also noted that he had an option of downsizing the workforce, “but after weighing the implication of that decision, the best option left to the government and the people is to harmonize salaries in the interest of the generality of our people.”

A  salary schedule  made available Sunday Vanguard  by the state ministry of finance showed  that between 2006 and 2011, workers enjoyed three upward review of salaries.
The reviews led to between 240 and 710 percent payrise with the least paid  civil servant going home with  N18,000 from N5,000 before the advent of the Suswam  administration.

Same is the situation with the permanent secretaries who, as highest paid civil servants, took home N73,458 monthly before the advent of the present administration, but now earn N436, 784, which amounted to over 585 percent increment.
It was on the basis of this unsolicited increases in salaries that the state government  is pleading for understanding on the part of the workers to allow a minimal slash in their pay to accommodate the harmonization policy.

The plea of the government has ostensively fallen on deaf ears as labour has remained unwavering in its rejection of the new policy.
In fact, at the end of a joint meeting of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, held in Makurdi, the organized labour insisted that should government abolish the policy and  refund  deductions from workers’ salaries.

The 24-hour ultimatum, which the state government could not meet, prompted a shutdown of government activities and the picketing of commercial banks and major business outlets in Benue  by the leadership of labour.
Relieve came after five days of the shutdown  following the decision of labour to suspend the action for one month to allow for negotiation, with a caveat to resume its action in full swing if government failed to yield to its demands.

The state government, on its part, has continued to lament that if the harmonization policy failed to scale through, there would be a total shutdown of  government, because the administration would not be able to pay workers let alone carry on  it’s activities.
Reacting to the development, the state chairman of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Comrade Godwin Anya, described the action of labour as unfortunate.

On  his  part, the state chairman of the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties, CNPP, Mr. Baba Agan, urged  government to revert the policy, stressing, “Thought the policy could be in the best interest of the people, the present economic realities do not warrant any form of salary cut. “