The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Job creation: ILO unveils plans to support Fed Govt

    Job creation: ILO unveils plans to support Fed Govt

    The President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s employment creation initiative is to get a boost from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

    ILO Country Director Mr. Dennis Zulu made the commitment on Tuesday during his visit to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige.

    According to the communiqué signed by the Deputy Director, Press, in the ministry, Mr. Samuel Olowookere, the ILO will like to partner Nigeria in the drafting of a new employment policy.

    “We as an organisation has attained an advanced stage in the drafting of this policy, and we need the contribution of the tripartite partner as well as the ministry to push it forward,” Zulu said.

    He stated that the global labour organisation was looking forward to receiving the input of the ministry towards the completion of the Social Protection Policy, which is aimed at providing social protection floor for the vulnerable including retirees thereby making sure that they did not fall back to poverty the trap after retirement.

    He also canvassed the need to review Nigeria’s labour laws to reflect the reality of the moment in the sector, adding that the ILO is looking forward under the present administration to see that the labour laws that have been in the National Assembly since 2005 are clarified to ensure that they reflect changing times and changing demands both in the private and public sectors.

    In his response, Sen. Ngige reiterated the administration’s commitment to the provision of jobs for the teeming unemployed youths. He assured the ILO of his ministry’s commitment to continued maintenance of industrial peace and harmony in the labour sector through proactive social dialogue.

    “The name of this ministry was changed to Ministry of Labour and Employment to reflect its pivotal role in the job creation efforts of the Federal Government. The activities of the ministry are also accentuated by this responsibility and we are living up to the task. However, the aspect that makes for industrial relations, social protection for the vulnerable and the entire workforce as enshrined in the ILO status and the nation’s constitution will not be abandoned,” Ngige said.

    The minister added that the change mantra of the present administration seeks to impact positively on the lives of the people. “We are going to make state resources available to everybody especially those on the lower rung of the social ladder and not a select few at the top.

    “We have fashioned out some social intervention programmes such as the Graduate Teachers Conversion Scheme, Commercial Farmers Training Project, Conditional Cash Transfer, Skill Acquisition Programme to impact skills such as metal fabrication, plumbing, electric wiring, baking, interior decoration, repair of phones, painting, hairdressing, garment production and mechatronic among others,” he said.

    The minister expressed hope that the ILO will give the ministry the technical support to man the various skills acquisition and vocational centres.

    He reminded the ILO Country Director of his earlier request in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia that in view of the enormous contributions of Nigeria to the ILO and being the first country to host its office in Africa, opened in 1959, it should be accorded a prime place in the West African sub region through the upgrade of its regional office in Nigeria.

    In a related event, ILO has warned the public, especially job seekers of fraudulent schemes purporting to solicit applications for employment or business opportunities on behalf of its officials.

    The ILO said it strongly recommends that prospective applicants and recipients must carefully verify the authenticity of solicitations and offers before sending any response.

  • NLC cautions Kano on workers’ verification

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Kano State has urged the state government to re-examine the list of ghost workers detected during its ongoing workers’ verification.

    Its Chairman in the state, Malam Kabiru Minjibir, made the call at a briefing in Kano.

    He said there was a need for the government to take cognisance of the fact that some workers were on training outside the country.

    “Also, some pensioners are not residing in the country after their service, yet they are pensioners in the state. We also identified some mix-up in the data provided by some government organs as part of their staff lists.

    “It will interest you to know that my humble self, the number one labour leader in the state after duly being captured in my area of assignment on March 18, was among the 7, 629 staff who did not appear for the exercise,” he said.

    According to Minjibir, many staff in active service, including directors, had been identified in the lists as those who have not been captured.

    He said the union in the state would not take it lightly if any of its genuine workers or pensioners was deleted from government’s payroll.

  • BoI plans capacity building for ex-militants

    BoI plans capacity building for ex-militants

    The Bank of Industry (BoI) and the Office of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the Niger Delta are to provide capacity and funding support for ex-militants.

    The deal is being struck by the two agencies of the Federal Government  to wind down the amnesty programme by 2018.

    Speaking during the meeting, which took place at the head office of BoI in Abuja, the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme for the Niger Delta, Brig-Gen. Paul Boro (rtd), said the programme office would need the support of the development finance institution on capacity building to enable the ex-militants channel their energies into productive ventures.

    Boro, who is also the Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta, noted that apart from the provision of adequate funding support, the ex-militants require training in various Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) value chain.

    He noted that he needed to draw up a two-year exit plan for the ex-agitators to enable them acquire relevant skills that would enable them contribute their own quota to the economic development of the country.

    He explained that 5, 000 ex-militants would exit the programme in each quarter for the next two years after receiving requisite capacity building and skills acquisition trainings.

    BoI Acting Managing Director, Mr. Waheed Olagunju, noted that the bank had drawn up specific programmes targeted towards harnessing the potential of the youths to enable them provide employment, not only for themselves, but also for others.

    He, however, argued that various researches had indicated that contrary to some widely held views, capacity, not inadequate capital, is actually the problem of small business operators in Nigeria.

    To increase access to loans, particularly for the youth, Waheed said  the bank had adjusted its risk acceptance criteria, moving it away from provision of collateral to having officials, either from the private or public sector who is not below level 12 standing as surety in case of default.

    He said it is in the bank’s interest to provide capacity for not only the youths in the restive Niger Delta, but also in the entire nation.

    “And BoI has been in the vanguard of that through its youth centred initiatives such as Graduate Entrepreneurship Fund (GEF) designed for serving members of the National Youth Service Corps, in partnership with the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE), Youth Entrepreneurship Support (YES) scheme and Vocational Skills Competition programme,” Waheed said.

  • Human Resources Management and organisational goals

    Human Resources Management and organisational goals

    Name:Yalo Umar Habibu

    Date of Birth: 3rd Nov, 1993.

    Major: MBA

    School: Shenyang University

    Project: Human Resources Management.

    HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AS A STRATEGY TOWARDS ACHIEVING ORGANIZATIONAL GOALS.

     

    Efficient and effective corporate decision making demands a thorough and intelligent understanding of the various dimensions that impact on the corporate performance and success, especially in Human Resources (HR).

     One important duty of the modern day manager is to get things done through people. Since he has to link the employee with the organization, he will definitely be interested in people, in the work and in the accomplishment of set objectives. For him to be effective, he must balance his concern for people and work, and be able to utilized human and material resources so that goals are translated into action.

     The foregoing is essentially the personnel function, a basic organic business function. Personnel and human resources administration can be seen as a set of organization wide functions and activities designed to influence the effectiveness of the human resources in the organization.

     Hence, the emphasis of HRM is on the individual. These activities include personnel planning, recruitment, selection, and placement, training and development, labor relation, compensation, record keeping and so on.

    The human resource is a particularly critically resource for every organization as they strive to seize the opportunities and cope with the challenges of technological developments, business alliances, trading blocks, and increasing globalization.

     

     

  • Solar firm to create 500,000 jobs

    A steven Solar Nigeria, a  solar power generating company, plans to generate about 50 Megawatts of electricity and create over 500, 000 direct jobs over the next 24 months.

    Its Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Sunny Akpoyibo, at a briefing at the ‘Nigeria Energy Forum’, where the firm bagged the Group Award for Outstanding Contribution to Sustainable Energy Development in Nigeria.

    Asteven Solar, he said, will commence the phased implementation of its model to generate 50 MW over the next 24 months with a potential to generate over 500,000 jobs, using its developed solar solutions.

    His words: “We are uniquely positioned to help Nigeria, working with government at all levels and corporate organisations, to bridge the energy gap and simultaneously achieve environmental sustainability and economic empowerment. This is due to the silent strategic investments we have been making over the years in solar energy in Nigeria, Cameroun and Europe.”

    The adoption of solar energy, he recalled, has often been weighed down by price and quality perception, adding that, the company is investing in service centres across Nigeria to ensure the quality of its panels, batteries, LED lights and other components.

  • Refineries: NUPENG warns NNPC over partnership with investors

    Refineries: NUPENG warns NNPC over partnership with investors

    The Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) not to engage investors as joint technical partners for the rehabilitation and running of refineries.

    The NNPC has advertised for the job.

    The union said it is also worried by similar adverts by the NNPC inviting pre-qualification for rehabilitation, upgrade, operatorship, management and maintenance of NNPC jetties, storage depots and pipeline infrastructure on joint venture partnership.

    In a statement by its Acting General Secretary, Comrade Joseph Ogbebor, NUPENG described the NNPC’s move as privatisation of national assets through the backdoor.

    According to Ogbebor, it is doomed to fail and bring more hardship to the citizens like the  Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

    Ogbebor, NUPENG would fight the joint partnership bid for security reasons and in the interest of oil and gas workers.

    No investor, he said, would want  his money in the JV without having a say in the running of the refineries, storage depots and jetties.

    “NUPENG states that the panacea to these challenges is not in joint partnership basis that will alter the ownership and operatorship structure, but the need to have the political will to make the refineries, pipelines, and storage depots work optimally,” the union said.

    The bidders, it said, would turn out to be those interested in buying the national assets adding that their planned sale through this method is a failure on the part of the NNPC management.

    “It also negates Federal Government’s plan to set-up a special task force to tackle pipeline vandalism and encourage investors to build refineries within the old refineries and use their facilities.

    “NUPENG calls on President Buhari to call the Minster of State, Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, to order and rescind the decision and concentrate on re-streaming the refineries, rehabilitate the depots instead of this new plan of partial privatisation through the backdoor that will result to job losses. This may lead the union to embark on a nationwide action,” Ogbebor said.

  • Union advocates workers’, employers’ partnership

    President, Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSEAC), Mr. Chris Okonkwo, has urged employers and workers to work together to drive productivity and elevate the power sector.

    The acknowledgment of workers’labour and constitutional rights, he said, could not be undermined because they are pivotal to ensuring efficiency in the sector.

    Okonkwo, who spoke at the association’s inaugural National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Lagos, said: “Employers should begin to see workers as partners in progress. It is only when they do this that their profiteering capability can be guaranteed. Companies by default are sabotaging themselves because you have to do what you are supposed to do first before you talk about what someone is doing to undo what you have done.”

    He said picketing is a tool in labour recognised by all conventions as a means of showing grievances against management or government. Picketing, he said,  does not mean sabotage and can only be if the intention is to blackmail workers to surrender their rights and allow them to be manipulated.

    The association, according to him, is working with the Ministry of Labour on a meeting over the sacking of 400 workers by an electricity distribution company (DisCo).

    Okonkwo lamented that the aftermath of the sector’s privatisation  was adverse, explaining that workers are bearing the brunt of companies’ failure to make adequate provision during the transition.

  • ‘Use recovered loot to create jobs’

    ‘Use recovered loot to create jobs’

    How should the money recovered from those who stole from the treasury be spent? It should be used on creating jobs, says a unionist, Comrade Kiri Mohammed.

    Mohammed, Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) president, said by so doing President Muhammadu Buhari would be addressing what he called the “unemployment crisis”.

    Speaking with The Nation, Mohammed expressed concern over slump in the oil price, which has made payment of salaries difficult.

    He urged all tiers of governments not to capitalise on this, to deny workers their salaries for diversification of the economy to address the problem.

    Kiri advised politicians to reduce the number of their aides to free up resources to meet other developmental programmes.

    “The union advocated the reduction in the cost of governance at all tiers of government due to the dwindling resources. The union regretted to observe that hundreds of billions of naira are filtered away by the public office holders, most especially in the guise of security vote.

    “In the same vein, the union expresses indignation in the way and manner public office holders and other individuals corruptly managed the resources of the country by diverting hard earned revenue through over bloated contract sums, unlimited appointment of political aides in the name of political gratification,” he said.

    In a related event, Trade Union Congress (TUC) President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, has called on the Federal Government to set up a tripartite committee to look into the minimum wage and review it.

    He made the call in Ilorin while opening a two-day yearly industrial relations workshop open. “We are looking forward to a tripartite committee to be set-up by the Federal Government to review the salary. We are hoping for a tripartite committee comprising government’s agencies and representatives of the organised labour (TUC and NLC) to deliberate, prepare a bill and send it to the National Assembly for amendment of the National Minimum Wage,” Kaigama said.

    Speaking on the passage of the 2016 budget, the TUC president said Nigerians should begin to see some changes in the country once President Buhari signed it into law.

    “We are waiting for the execution of the change mantra budget, which has just been passed by the National Assembly.

    “In the coming months, we should begin to see certain achievements that will make Nigerians believe or otherwise the policies of the current administration. We hope that they will not forget and be carried away by the euphoria of victory as four years is just like four days,” Kaigama said.

  • ENL Consortium ready to pay off protesting dockworkers – official

             

    ENL Consortium, operator of Terminals C and D of the Lagos Port Complex (LPC), Apapa, said it was ready to pay off dockworkers who volunteered to quit their jobs.

     

    The Legal Adviser of ENL Consortium, Mr Uzamot Boye, said this in a statement made available to newsmen on Monday in Lagos.

     

    Boye said that contrary to claims in certain quarters, the workers were issued with valid employment letters when they joined the company.

     

    “It must be on record that these set of dockworkers elected to leave the terminals by themselves.’’

     

    “Those of them who want to continue working with us and who are in the majority, are at their job posts as we speak but the few that want to leave are free to do so.

     

    “We have been meeting with the union and officials of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

     

    “To work out modalities for their payments, which we are ready to pay in full in consonance with the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) agreement, ’’ the legal adviser said.

     

    According to him, everyone in the industry knows ENL Consortium to be a people-focused organisation.

     

    “We empower our people and enable them to be the best. Our Executive Vice- Chairman/Chief Executive Officer places the welfare of workers above every other consideration.

     

    “The few dockworkers who want to be paid off should be patient and work with their leaders. They will receive their full retirement benefits in line with negotiated agreements,’’ Boye said.

     

    The ENL legal adviser said the few aggrieved dockworkers were causing disruptions and breaching the peace at the ports for no justifiable reasons.

     

     

  • Review workers’ salaries, govt told

    The General Secretary, National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Issa Aremu, has urged the Federal Government to set in motion the machinery to review the  minimum wage of N18,000.

    Aremu said it was not too late for a supplementary review of the budget to accommodate the salary review.

    He said the expectation of labour was  beyond paying workers on time, adding that its expectation is that government should set in motion the machinery for the review of the existing minimum wage.

    “The best way to stimulate the economy is through improved wage income for the working people. Workers’ pay goes to basic goods such as food, rent, transport and clothes which is good for the business of the real sector that produces such products and survives.

    “I have no doubt that the NLC leadership will soon constructively engage the Buhari administration on the need for the new minimum wage,’’ Aremu said.