Organised labour in Nigeria’s federal public service has given the Federal Government a hard deadline of Friday to release funds for three months of unpaid wage awards and other outstanding entitlements owed to civil servants across Ministries, Departments and Agencies.

The ultimatum was issued by the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council Trade Union Side, which represents eight unions in the core civil service. In a strongly worded letter to the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the council warned that failure to comply would trigger decisive industrial action nationwide.

Labour leaders accused the government of deliberately withholding funds earmarked for workers, insisting that all relevant payroll and personnel agencies were ready to process payments once the Ministry of Finance released the money.

The dispute stems from a wage award introduced as a temporary cushion after the removal of fuel subsidy and the approval of a N70,000 minimum wage. The award was designed to run until the new minimum wage regime fully took effect, but labour says implementation has been marred by delays and broken promises.

According to the unions, the Federal Government initially left five months of the wage award unpaid. Only after sustained pressure did it authorise staggered payment of two months, leaving three months outstanding since July 2024. The arrears, they said, have deepened frustration among federal workers already grappling with rising living costs.

In a separate correspondence to the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, the council alleged that all agencies responsible for disbursing the wage award were “ready to pay” but were constrained by the non-release of funds. The minister, they claimed, was “deliberately holding back the money,” a charge that underscores growing mistrust between labour and government.

Beyond the wage award, the unions highlighted a backlog of unresolved obligations: promotion arrears for workers elevated more than three years ago, salary arrears for staff recruited between 2015 and 2024, and the full implementation of a 40 per cent peculiar allowance calculated on the N70,000 minimum wage.

Labour warned that if the funds for the wage award are not released by Friday, its national leadership will “take the bull by the horn” and mobilise appropriate actions. They insisted that workers’ entitlements cannot be treated with levity and that civil servants must not be subjected to further hardship through delayed payments.