CONTISS salary structure in Nigeria
When coming across the word combination CONTISS salary structure in Nigeria, many people do not have any idea what it’s all about. What’s more, even those people who work and receive regular payments from their companies or employers, don’t even know what salary structure is. Let’s try to make things clear together.
What is basic salary structure?
Every enterprise has its own way to calculate wages they pay out to their employees. However, there are some basic principles that help them form certain salary structure for their employees and these principles are as follows.
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Salaries consist of two parts. The main part is the amount of money determined for this job. The additional part is the amount of money that involves all extra charges and rates that are calculated separately and under special circumstances.
- Additional payments are paid to workers as a compensation for extra working hours, management of a department, working in several shifts, dangerous work, intensive work, night shifts
- Extra charges are paid to workers as an encouragement.
- Premiums are paid to workers in order to stimulate their further achievements and as a result of their exceptionally effective individual or collegial work, for their contribution to the effectiveness of the company, etc.
As a rule, the ways to calculate all these additional sums are regulated by special inner documents (that are used inside the company) and general laws (used for the entire sphere, for example, or the whole country).
Salary structures in Nigeria and the body that regulates them
In Nigeria, the structure of salaries and the way they are calculated is regulated by a special body that was created in 1993. NSIWC, the national commission that regulates salaries, wages, and incomes, was created due to targeted recommendations of Government and different ad-hoc commissions and other bodies.
These ad-hoc commissions and panels, existing since 1960, have never been powerful enough to make things better for workers. The situation has been such for many years. Workers are being underpaid and much more than they are given.
Owing to the creation of the national commission, NSIWC, the area of public service has received some protection and care. The commission has issued several legal documents that regulate the structure of salaries in the Nigerian public services and they are being used.
What is Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Structure (CONTISS)?
In Nigeria, there are two salary structures that are determined by the abbreviation CONTISS – Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Structure and Consolidated Tertiary Institution Salary Structure II. They both relate to the salaries that are received in tertiary institutions but with slight differences.
CONTISS states that the salary calculated for people working in tertiary institutions should include the following categories:
- Meal subsidy
- Leave grant
- Allowances, such as: utility, journal, furniture, research, examination administration, industrial supervision, field trip, rural posting, clinical duty, domestic servant, teaching, administrative officer, responsibility, inducement, and driver’s (for the officers who are entitled)
The CONTISS structure is applied to non-academic staff at universities, both non-academic and academic staff in Polytechnics, colleges and research institutions. In addition to these, the CONTISS structure works for doctors (medical, veterinary, and dental ones) in federal health institutions like teaching hospitals, specialists hospitals, medical centers, and so on.
The CONTISS salary structure was put into effect on January 1, 2007.
CONTISS II, in its turn, is an addition to the first CONTISS document. Issued in 2009 to make the effect of the previous document more complete and expanded, it consolidates the previous structure with a peculiar allowance meant for non-academic staff at universities and a rent subsidy.
The meaning of salary structures in Nigeria
In addition to CONTISS, there is a range of other abbreviations used for salary structures in Nigeria. Let’s take a quick look at them, too, and see which documents regulate the way salaries are calculated for different groups of federal public officers.
- CONTOPSAL - Consolidated Top Federal Public Office Holders' Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for the highest officials at the government
- CONRAISS - Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for the mentioned institutions that belong to the federal public service
- CONUASS - Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for the academic staff at federal universities
- CONMESS - Consolidated Medical Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for federal public service medical doctors and dentists
- CONHESS - Consolidated Health Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for health workers like nurses, laboratory workers, and others in federal public service
- CONJUSS - Consolidated Judicial Salary Structure – a salary structure meant for lawyers and other judicial workers in the sphere of federal public services
Now, you have a basic understanding of the way salaries are built up and the diverse structures that work for separate groups of employees involved in federal public services. Hopefully, the information was useful to you! If yes, please kindly share it with all those who may be interested, too.
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Source: Legit.ng
