IF workers in the public service make good their threat, a strike could be looming soon among civil servants over the Federal Government's delay in increasing their salaries.

For the past three years, the public service workers said, Federal Government has treated calls by workers in the federal civil service for salary increment with levity.

The workers are not only irked by government's alleged lukewarm attitude to their call, they are increasingly worried by the disparity in the salary of civil servants on different scales. A case in point, according to them, is the gulf that exists in the salaries of a Permanent Secretary and a Director, two positions that have only one step separating them.

Already, all the eight unions in the public service, under the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC) have put workers on notice for an indefinite strike.

The unions resolved to embark on the strike after their negotiations with the government deadlocked last Thursday, and have all been directed to mobilise their members on the planned strike.

The eight unions in the public/civil service are: The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU), Nigeria Union of Civil Service Secretariat and Stenographic Workers (NUCSSSW), Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations (AUPC), Civil Service Technical and Recreation Services Employees (CSTRSE), Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria (MHWUN), Agricultural and Allied Workers Union of Nigeria (AAWUN), National Association of Nigeria Nurses and Midwives (NANNM), and the National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Product (NUPPPP).

Addressing journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Chairman of JNPSNC and President of ASCSN, Olakunle Olaitan, said the unions, under the aegis of the joint council, had done everything within their power to ensure that government addresses the issues in question without success, a development which had necessitated exploring the strike as the last resort.

Olaitan said: "The negotiation was deadlocked. Strike is the next option. The National Public Service Negotiating Council shall meet next week to mobilise workers. At present, there is a serious problem of disparity in salaries and wages payable for work of substantial equal value within the public service."

He explained that the last increment in the salary of certain political, public and judicial public office holders affected only the salary and emolument of Permanent Secretaries but left other categories of workers from Directors downward with their previous meagre salaries.

The JNPSNC Chairman stated that the increment had left a wide gap between the salary of Permanent Secretaries and Directors who were next to them in rank as outlined in the civil service structure.

He stressed that the recent salary disparity in the civil service could not be justified and was causing serious disaffection within the service.

According to Olaitan, while a permanent secretary receives N1.34 million per month, a Director next to him receives N145,150 per month, which is against the rules and consolidated structure in the civil service.

He further explained that based on the public /civil service system and the consolidated salary structure, a Director should earn 50.86 per cent of Permanent Secretary's salary, while the existing disparity between Grade Level 01 and Grade Level 17 should be 1.7.66927.

He regretted that the recent development had rubbished this structure and rules.

However, he was quick to point out that though the unions had succeeded in getting government to understand the need for salary and wage review, it had refused to take concrete action on it since they had been meeting on the matter over the last two years.

Sources disclosed that unions have slated a meeting for this week to take a final decision on the matter, while intensifying mobilisation of workers for the industrial action.