The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Civil society decries poor electricity supply

    Civil Society Group, acting under the aegis of Citizens Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights has decried the current poor electricity supply in the country.

    Rising from its meeting, the group described the persistent government’s apologies as new smart methods of covering up for cheating electricity consumers. The group therefore, said the power reform drivers should refund every electricity consumer under the monthly estimated bill rate regime, all the payments they have made without corresponding power supply.

    “We summarily condemn the hypocritical apologies being offered by the drivers of power sector reform over the poor power supply in recent months. One wonders whether the Ministry of Power and Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) just woke up to discover this power sector malady.

    ”The most worrisome aspect of their public apologies is that before now, they have consistently promised Nigerians that very soon, the power supply situation will improve. We have lost count of increases in megawatts that were promised in numerous occasions. “While Nigerians believed what appears today to be a cork and bull story and waiting for power improvement, the drivers of the reform were busy preparing how to aplologise,” the group said.

  • NECA opposes plan to picket DISCOs

    The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) is opposed to the move by the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) to picket some distribution companies in the power sector, the Director -General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, told reporters in Lagos.

    Oshinowo condemned the statement issued by NUEE informing Nigerians on its planned move to picket the privatized units of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) acquired by new investors.

    He said: “The statement of NUEE came as a rude shock to us and their action is completely out of place. I will appeal to them not to take laws into their hands. If this is not checked, it may lead to crisis and state of anarchy. Industrial relations is not gangsterism or students union.”

    Oshinowo maintained that the way to go in resolving issues is not by picketing, saying that laid down rules should be followed. He added that the non-payment of the union members’ entitlements should be directed to the Federal Government not the new owners of PHCN.

    Oshinowo stressed that the issue of trade union is a fundamental right of workers but noted it is wrong for new employers to assume that their employees belong to unions without informing them (employers). ”We are not saying they should not belong to union but it should be in accordance with labour laws,”he said.

    Last week, NUEE kicked against the anti-workers stance of some of the new investors who took over the privatised units of PHCN. The group stressed that the new investors have started in a large scale the de-unionisation of workers.

    Addressing newsmen on the anti-workers activities in Lagos, NUEE’s General Secretary, comrade Joe Ajaero, said that the workers and Nigerians at large are badly affected by the anti-workers actions of the investors

    He said: “We have decided to engage them with the aim of restoring normalcy in the system as they are involved in de-unionisation of workers, casualization, under-payment of workers remunerations, sacking of union leaders after legitimate struggle for workers’ right as well as  the continued manipulation of fixed tariff.

    “Others include the continued non-metering of electricity customers as well as the non-payment of entitlement of disengaged staff.”

    He explained that the government has been feeding Nigerians with lies by saying it has finished paying disengaged power sector workers. He said: “Government through the Ministry of Power and the Accountant-General of the Federation and other agencies are unable to explain the whereabouts of over N100billion meant for the payment of workers’ entitlements.

    “We are worried that the 10 per cent equity shareholding for workers as collectively agreed has been jettisoned. The issue of biometric of workers has been a broad day racket as the consultant engaged for this purpose has continued to use endless biometric exercise to siphon the the sector’s funds.”

    Ajaero argued that the unpaid sixteen months entitlements of workers (July, 2012 to October, 2013), is still pending.

    “We therefore, consider it highly imperative to inform Nigerians that picketing of these companies will commence any moment from now.

    “We hereby solicit for the understanding of the general public towards arresting this act of un-patriotism and second slavery of Nigerians by these newinvestors,” he said.

  • ‘Lagos committed to training competent workforce’

    The Lagos State government said it is committed to training and retraining of its workforce to ensure that they deliver on the mandate to offer cutting edge services to residents of the state.

    The Head of Service (HOS), Mrs. Josephine Oluseyi Williams made this known at the graduation and award giving ceremony of 147 participants from the third tier of government at the state’s Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), Magodo, Lagos.

    The participants were drawn from the Local Government Service Commission, the Judicial Service Commission, the Lagos State Water Corporation and administrative officers of the 20 Local Governments and 37 Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs).

    The three batches comprised of the Specialised Information Communication Technology (ICT) programme for secretariat assistants batch IV to VI, which is for the 2011 to 2013 sessions and participants for the certificate course in Local Government Administration for 2009 to 2013 sessions.

    Williams who was represented by the Permanent Secretary in the Public Service Office, Mr. Olalekan Akodu, said government’s determination to see that the tradition of excellence with which the Lagos State government is known permeates all the strata of governance informs the approval of Governor Babatunde Fashola for the training of the council workers.

    She charged all the secretary assistants and administrative officers who had participated in the two respective programmes to see the trainings as an investment for which the government would be looking forward to greater service delivery and excellence when they report at their duty posts.

    She said: “As the head of service, I shall be looking forward to a positive post-training assessment of your performance from the office of the Local Government Service Commission and I believe that this would ginger the government to continue to do more.”

    The Commissioner for Establishment, Training and Pensions, who was represented by the Ministry’s Director of Training, Mr. Akeem M. Odeyemi, urged the participants to ensure at all times that they give their best to justify their inclusion in the programme by improving their competence at their respective local governments.

    “I urge you all to see your graduation from this centre as the beginning of new things and always strive to rise above this level, knowing that the government would want them to maximize the lessons learnt to improve their service delivery capacity.

    The Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission, Mr. Adewale Jamiu Ashimi said the Commission would be measuring the performance of all participants in order to measure the impact of the training received at the centre as part of its feedback mechanism.

    The Director-General and Chief Executive of the centre, Mrs, Regina Olubunmi Fabanwo, in her welcome address, said the PSSDC would continue to provide human capacity solutions to government workers to ensure that the state continues to lead. She praised the centre’s collaborators, particularly the Yabatech Consult and the Computer Professionals of Nigeria (CPN) for giving the ICT graduands appropriate certification.

    Presenting the 147 participants to the HOS for acceptance into the graduands’ cadre, the Director of Training and Programmes, PSSDC, Mrs. Kemisola Jiboye said the three sets of participants of the two programmes had spent between three and nine months in the centre. Though the courses, she said, are non residential, the participants had gone through the rigours and there is no doubt that they would be able to hold their own in the discharge of their duties.

    Representative of Yabatech Consult, Mr. Edwin Aigbokhai thanked the state government for providing an avenue for the retraining of workers at the grassroots. He assured that the new ICT training that they have been exposed to would be of tremendous use to them at their duty posts. “The training besides being of tremendous benefit at their workplaces would also ensure the career rise of workers as it has addressed the deficiencies in their certificates and bring them at par with their colleagues in the state government service,” he said.

    Responding, Mrs Ademoye Olaomoju Olufunmilayo, the overall best granduand of the local government administration class, thanked the government for the selection of participants for the courses, even as she advised that the programmes be continuous exercises so that all who have been caught in the web of career stagnation due to the absence of appropriate certification could have the opportunity of rising above the situation.

    Olaomoju said she and her colleagues and would not let the government down. Another graduand, Mrs. Victor Olutayo Deborah, the overall best graduand who spoke on behalf of the ICT class, tasked the government to make the service life of assistant secretaries more robust as, according to her, they are the life wire of secretariat activities at the councils.

    She called for adequate reforms that would see their cadre rise even to level 11 in the local government service, adding that regular training such as this would ensure that many more workers are kitted with appropriate certificates to make their career rise. The highpoint of the ceremony was the award of certificates as deserving participants were presented awards both for academic and moral/leadership excellence.

  • National Confab: Labour kicks against secret selection of leaders

    Organised labour comprising the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), has criticised the secret selection of committees leaders by the National Conference leadership, stressing that the decision for committees to select or elect their officers was unanimously taken month and ought not to be changed without recourse to the general house.

    President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwahed Ibrahim Omar and TUC President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama declared that the committee of 50 acted in violation of their brief since their mandate was to determine what should constitute a majority vote in the absence of a consensus.

    The labour said this scenario of a few privileged people tinkering with the decision of a whole house is nothing but dictatorship and tyranny adding that if it is allowed to stand, it may become a feature of the conference. According to them, one of the reasons for convening the conference is to deepen democracy and not to reinforce impunity.

    They said: ”We demand the restoration of the original decision of the plenary session that committees should choose their leaders. The leadership should desist from taking for granted delegates to the conference. We are here to express our reservations as well as protest against the decision of the conference leadership to unilaterally reverse a consensus decision taken by the entire membership of the conference that chairmen and deputy chairmen of committees would be elected or selected by the committees.”

    The labour leaders said that the committees’ recommendations on the issue of presiding officers of committees, therefore, cannot and should not stand. “This scenario of a few privileged people tinkering with the decision of a whole house is nothing but dictatorship and tyranny of a few. If it is allowed to stand, it may become a feature of the conference. The reversal of the right of committees to elect/select their officers directly is an affront to democracy as well as a violation of the right of delegates to freely choose their presiding officers.

    ”We must warn that this seemingly innocuous act sends out dangerous signals and is capable of raising credibility issues in subsequent decisions,” they said.

  • BPE pays 45,136 ex-PHCN staff N370b severance pay

    The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) said it has remitted to the Office of the Account-General of the Federation (OAGF) a total of N370billion for payment of the severance benefits of former employees of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

    The Director-General of the BPE, Mr. Benjamin Ezra Dikki, who made the statement during a media chat to unveil the agency’s 2014 work plan in Abuja, said the committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Power, has verified to date 45,136 staff for payment out of 47,913 staff.

    He noted that after the Bureau’s nationwide field verification of the possible 4,194 PHCN retirees, 2,931 or their next of kin have been verified, leaving 1,163 yet to be verified.

    He said the verification committee and the Bureau were making extra effort to ensure that the outstanding pensioners were verified and paid their entitlements expeditiously.

    The BPE boss advised the pensioners or their next of kin who had not been verified to do so before Wednesday 2nd April 2014.

    He said that out of the earlier 47,913 staff list obtained from PHCN, 45,136 verified staff entitlements have been cash-backed to the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation for payment.

    Dikki explained that 338 on the retirees list were exited staff, while 21 were cases of duplication. He stated that 262 cases were currently being processed and 551 had already been recommended for validation by the Verification Committee on Payment of PHCN Severance Payment following a nationwide verification exercise.

  • Group stages solidarity rally for unemployed

    The Joint Action Front (JAF), last week, kicked off a mass rally in solidarity with millions of unemployed Nigerians.

    JAF in a statement signed by its President,  Dr Oladipo Fashina, said: “JAF declares its solidarity with all categories of unemployed Nigerians, who are more than 50 million across the country. The working and oppressed people of Nigeria demand the right to jobs and employment opportunities irrespective of sex, ethnic or religious background”.

    He said  JAF position on the tragic incident of the death of scores of applicants during the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) job recruitment exercises of March 15th 2014 is that governments at all levels , irrespective of political parties, are culpable because they failed to provide decent jobs and enabling opportunities for gainful employments.

    “All the governments in the country are subscribed to the anti-poor neo-liberal capitalist agenda, which create the conditions for unemployment, closure of industries, dependence on imported products including fuel, job insecurity, under-employment, cheap and slave labour, casualisation, poor wages and anti-workers policies.

    “For instance, the privatisation of electricity with the attendant outage and high tariffs, and the outrageous taxes imposed by both state and local governments, have made life very difficult for artisans and small business owners and some of them have been forced out of business. The same anti-poor agenda accounts for the ban of Okada/ Achaba by state governments who do not create alternative decent jobs for the youths and unemployed, hence the increasing rate of the army of unemployed estimated at final about two million annually,” he said.

    He said that it is possible to create massive jobs with living wage for all Nigerians, given the fact that many critical sectors like education, health care, agriculture, housing, infrastructure,  are short of adequate personnel and require massive expansion to meet the growing needs of the population.

    He said the crisis of unemployment in Nigeria is such that the decadent capitalist economic agenda of successive regimes cannot resolve it.

    “It is only a socialist transformation of the Nigerian polity that can guarantee such massive jobs and employment creating opportunities that would make it possible  for ALL Nigerians to have access to education, healthcare, housing, infrastructure, industrialisation, energy, social welfare,” he said.

  • Bankers’ union worried over long working hours

    The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSIBIFI) has criticised the increasing working hours of workers of commercial banks in the country, saying the development amounts to slave labour.

    ASSIBIFI said Nigeria is a signatory to International Labour Convention (ILO) on decent work, wondering why banks in the country contravene the rules in pursuit of profits.

    Speaking during the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, held in Accra Ghana, the President of the union, Comrade OlusojiSalako, said the association can no longer tolerate the poor work-life of its members, adding  that the union is considering meeting the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) so as to nip the development in the bud.

    The union appealed to the Senate Committee on Banking to fashion out laws specifying the number of hours bank workers must put in daily and also monitor its implementation.

    Lead presenter at the meeting, Olayide Atanda-Obalakun, blamed some bank workers for the scourge, saying some of them have conditioned their minds to late work hours.

    However, he advised them to condemn the practice and voice out through the union in order to promote a balance between work and good health.

  • NECA slams at regulatory agencies

    The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has frowned at the activities  of some regulatory agencies, describing their operation as inimical to wealth creation.

    Speaking at a press conference in Lagos, the Director General, NECA, Dr. SegunOshinowo lamented the behaviour of federal regulatory agencies, which allegedly extort money from telecommunications companies, among others, before carrying out their official duties.

    He said the regulatory bodies should be open to dialogue with stakeholders at all times, stressing that dialogue is key to the development of any country. “It is only in this environment that regulatory agencies that have been set up to protect the interest of Nigerians would be adverse to dialogue, he said.

    He explained that the purpose of dialogue is to promote development and to give stakeholders the opportunity to make inputs in the way you do your job.

    He said the ultimate reason for creating the regulatory agencies was to ensure that products consumed by Nigerians were of good quality.

    “It is pretty difficult for me to connect to the way some of these regulatory agencies are slamming fines on companies and we do not see any changes in what they are trying to correct.’’

    Oshinowo, who also spoke on the security situation in the country, said that insecurity is a big problem that has affected businesses.

    On the privatisation of the nation’s four refineries, Oshinowo, said  the interest of Nigerians and what the country stood to gain in the long run should be paramount.

    He said privatization of the refineries would stop importation of petroleum products .

    “It is of no  benefit having  four refineries in the country  that are not working and so, the policy  would stop the importation of petroleum products,” he said.

    He urged government to be decisive and put the interest of the masses first and not the resistance of one labour union.

    “If privatisation of the refineries will promote efficiency in the downstream sub-sector by avoiding wastages through subsidy on kerosene and petrol,it should be encouraged,” he said.

    “There is nothing wrong in privatising the refineries if it will help save the huge money spent on their turnaround maintenance without any results.

    “If the refineries are not privatised, how can we stop the importation of fuel and get more Nigerians to invest in building refineries and creating jobs?, he asked.

  • SSANU wants confab to address anti-labour issues

    The Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called on delegates in the on-going National Confab to come out with a National Labour Policy that will finally address the issue of anti-labour practices in Nigeria.

    Besides, the union has called for a total and radical change in the composition of Governing Councils of Public Universities, saying that the Federal Government should take a second look at the process of appointing Vice Chancellors.

    Rising from a two-day National Workshop held in conjunction with the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), at the Obudu Mountain Resort, the union frowned at the high level of anti-labour practices in the country, especially in the university system.

    SSANU pointed out that private universities and their operators are most culpable in anti-labour activities, saying that operators of private universities have consistently denied thousands of Nigerians working in the institutions their constitutional rights through outsider clauses and “yellow dog contracts.”

    A communique issued after the workshop and made available to journalists in Abuja,  said: “SSANU therefore resolve that it shall employ all peaceful and legal means to ensure that all staffers of Public and Private Universities in Nigeria are unionised for mutual benefit of the system.

    “SSANU also calls on the on-going National Confab to ensure that it comes out with a National Labour Policy that will deal with the issue of ‘yellow dog contracts’ and other anti-labour practices in Nigeria.”

    It said as a responsible and patriotic union, which believe in the Nigerian project, “SSANU supports the convocation of the National Conference to fashion out a generally acceptable structure of Federalism for Nigeria as well as finding lasting solution to germane issues that borders on Labour and national development.”

    The union however called on the President to ensure that there is nothing like ‘no-go-area’ for the conference, adding that the President should ensure that the outcome of the conference, rather than being sent to the National Assembly, as is being suggested by some politicians, should be subjected to a national referendum.

    SSANU also called on the Federal Government to review its policy on globalisation with a view to making it more beneficial to the country.

    It further called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to expedite action to stop all the anti-labour practices being perpetrated by foreign manufacturing companies in Nigeria.

    On governance, the union called for a total and radical change in the composition of Governing Councils of Nigeria public Universities in such a way that it would give equal representation to both the teaching staff, non-teaching staff of the University as well as students, Alumni and host communities.

    It also called for the automatic inclusion of all principal officers of the University as substantive members of Council as well as some key officers of the Universities such as the Directors of Works, Health, Academic Planning and Physical Planning; should be made to implement some critical decisions of Council.

    It noted that if this is done and all the stakeholders are represented in the process of decision making in the University, it would engender a sense of belonging and understanding, which would reduce acrimony and promote peaceful co-existence needed for the development and enhancement of the standard of University education in Nigeria.”

    On the appointment of vice chancellors, the union said a lot of caution should be exercised since the VC is regarded as the father to all, adding VCs should serve all the stakeholders in the University.

    The union regreted that the process of appointing Vice Chancellors in Nigerian Pubic Universities have been made an exclusive right of a segment of the system; which practice has made the Vice Chancellor so appointed to find him or herself as pawn in the hands of actors of this privileged group who participated in the process of appointing the Vice Chancellor to the detriment of others who were not so privileged to participate. It said the practice, among other things, contributed a lot to the endemic corruption and falling standard in the system.

    The union therefore called on government to take a second look at the process of appointing Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Public Universities, with a view to making it all encompassing such that the representatives of major stakeholders in the University (including students) would be made to participate in the appointment of Vice Chancellors.

  • Unemployment a time bomb, says ASSBIFI

    The Senior Staff Association of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has warned about the dangers of rising youth unemployment.

    Its President, Comrade Sunday Olusoji Salako, described the situation as worrisome, just as he urged the Federal Government to tackle the menace.

    “We are worried that the teeming population of our youths in the country are unemployed and we, therefore, urge the government to redefine the current economic policy to create job opportunities. The scary reality of the high rate of unemployment is a ticking time bomb, which, if we fail to defuse as quickly as possible, may erode whatever semblance of social harmony and stability that is left of our polity.”

    Salako called on indigenous investors in the manufacturing sector to make room for investment potentials in agriculture that would expand their businesses beyond the continent to the BRICS countries.

    He said: “It is high time our investors look beyond oil and look deep into agriculture as a sector that could be utilised  to  expand their businesses beyond the continent to the BRICS countries.”

    BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The grouping was originally known as “BRIC” before the inclusion of South Africa in 2010. The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries, but they are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies.

    According to Salako, Nigerian investors need partnerships with investors from other African countries to go beyond the continent to the BRICS nations

    “This is because a new crop of Nigerian entrepreneurs are emerging who have ambitions to go beyond the continent. They should be investing in the BRICS countries in the same way that BRICS are investing in Africa. This relationship needs to go both ways,” he said.

    Salako emphasised that specific measures and initiatives must be embarked upon to increase business, trade, manufacturing, and investment ties between Nigeria, other African countries and the BRICS countries. He highlighted the need to improve infrastructure on the continent.

    He said businesses could only grow if the infrastructure gap was addressed.

    “There is urgent need for investment in soft infrastructure starting with broadband technology that would have a transformative effect similar to mobile technology in Africa,” he said.

    He, however, noted that the critical things any investor looks for, regardless of where the investment is located, are the rule of law, independence of the judiciary, security of property and transparency of markets.

    Salako called on the Federal Government to review the multiple regulatory agencies in the country. He  said: “There is an urgent need for the  government to consider strengthening all government regulatory agencies with a view to stemming the tide of smuggling in Nigeria because smuggling has been a burden to its members nationwide.”