In a statement, the Head, Public Affairs Division of the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission (NSIWC), Emmanuel Njoku, said that the commission, on whose shoulders the project lies, will start with the health sector.
The Chairman of the NSIWC, Ekpo Nta, said that the government cannot achieve a fair and equitable reward system without a good understanding of the relative worth of one’s skills, profession, and services.
NTA made this known during the briefing of contact officers drawn from health sector agencies.
"This is to get their buy-in into the exercise before the commencement of the comprehensive job evaluation in the Nigerian public health sector," he said.
The exercise, according to the chairman, would address the ever-increasing challenges posed in the public sector's remuneration administration system, emphasising that a logical and equitable wage structure is a natural outcome of job evaluation.
He noted that job evaluation became necessary because jobs in the public sector, particularly in the health sector, had changed in nature, content, and utility since 1974, when the last job evaluation and grading was completed.
"Job evaluation eliminates salary inequalities by placing jobs with similar requirements in the same salary range, as such assisting in the resolution of wage-related grievances quickly," the chairman explained, adding that the commission had proposed in its five-year strategic plan to embark on a comprehensive evaluation and grading of jobs in the Federal Public Service, but the commission had not been able to embark on the project due to financial constraints.
This has necessitated scaling it down to sectors, starting with the health sector.
Director of Evaluation and Grading, EG, Mr. Chuma Nwachinemere, said job evaluation provides a systematic process for assessing the relative value of jobs to one another in an organisation.
Nwachinemere noted that the exercise is a procedure-oriented method, which compels evaluation and grading officers as well as compensation officers to always look at all the key factors and sub-factors of a job in order to eliminate bias and arbitrariness that might arise in every stage of compensation.
"It should be noted that the government, while attempting to tackle these challenges, had at one time or another set up several ad hoc committees and presidential panels."
"These include the Tudor Grading Teams of 1942, the Udoji Commission of 1972–1974, followed by the Dotun Philips, Shonekan, Cookey, and Onosode Presidential Panels. "All these committees and panels came up with one common recommendation, which is the establishment of an effective and efficient job evaluation and grading process for all public sector jobs," he explained.
