About National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission
The National Salaries, Incomes & Wages Commission (NSIWC) was established by Act 99 of 1993. Its creation was based on the recommendations made at various times by ad-hoc Commissions or Panels set up by Government from time to time since 1960, to deal with issues relating to salaries and wages of Nigerian workers. The implementation of the recommendations of such ad-hoc bodies were never fully carried out to enable workers derive full benefits of their work. Consequently, the Udoji Commission on the review of the Public Service (1972 – 1974) recommended that a permanent body be constituted to inter alia, take care of annual reviews of wages and salaries in the Public Service.
National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission has very broadly defined functions with comprehensive coverage on all issues of Personnel Compensation.
These NSIWC functions are as follows:
- Advises the Federal Government on national incomes policy;
- Recommends the proportions of income growth which shall be utilised for general wage increase;
- Informs the Federal Government of current and incipient trends in wages and proposes guidelines within which increase in wages shall be confined;
- Keeps the Federal Government informed on a continuous basis of movement of all forms of income and propose guidelines relating to profits, dividends and all incomes other than wages;
- Encourages research on wage structure (including industrial, occupational and regional and any other similar factor), income distribution and household consumption patterns;
- Keeps prices under continuous surveillance, interprets price movements and relates them to other developments in the national economy;
- Proposes measures for the regulation of prices and wages in the various sectors of the economy and for the control of hoarding;
- Encourages and promotes schemes for raising productivity in all sectors of the economy;
- Establishes and runs a data bank or other information center relating to data on wages and prices or any other variable and for that purpose to collaborate with data collection agencies to design and develop an adequate information system;
- Informs and educates the public on prices, wages and productivity, their relationships with one another and their inter-play in determining standards of living and real economic growth;
- Examines and advises on any matter referred to it by the Federal and State Governments concerning any of the functions conferred on it by or pursuant to the Act;
- Examines, streamlines and recommends salary scales applicable to each post in the public service;
- Examines areas in which rationalisation and harmonisation of wages, salaries and other conditions of employment are desirable and feasible as between the public and private sectors of the economy and recommends guidelines which will ensure sustained harmony in work compensation policies in both the public and private sectors;
- Examines the salary structures in the public and private sectors and recommends a general wage framework with reasonable features of relativity and maximum levels which are in consonance with the national economy;
- Examines and recommends effective machinery for assembling data on a continuing basis taking into account changes in the cost of living, productivity levels, levels of pay in the private sector and other relevant economic data on which public sector salary and other benefits can be reviewed annually;
- Examines the current rate of retirement benefits and recommends appropriate mechanism for periodic review of retirement benefits;
- Inquires into and makes recommendations on any other matter which, in the opinion of the Commission, appear to be relevant to the foregoing and therefore ought, in the public interest, to be inquired into; and
- Undertakes any other activity which is likely to assist in the performance of the functions conferred on it by or pursuant to this Act.
Contact National Salaries Incomes and Wages Commission
