The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • 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.”

  • ‘ECS scheme will address workers’ welfare’

    The Managing Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), Mr. Munir Abubakar, has said the Employees’Compensation Scheme (ECS) would address all issues relating to workplace security, safety and anxiety in the country.

    This, he said, is part of efforts to ensure that administrative cost of managing the ECS does not fall short of International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) benchmark for social insurance schemes.

    Speaking in Abuja, Abubakar, said the primary objective of the scheme was the protection of citizens against problems associated with disruptions.

    The scheme, he added, also protects against changes in their income situation which could expose them to poverty, suffering and indignity.

    While reviewing the ongoing NSITF and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) safe workplace intervention project as well as an interactive session with participating employers on the implementation of the ECS in the country, he also assured that more employers are embracing the scheme voluntarily. The management, he noted, will continue to explore the option of ‘moral suasion’ for the time being, rather than sanction.

    He said: “As part of our efforts at ensuring accountability and transparency in the operation of the ECS as well as at ensuring that administrative cost of managing the ECS does not exceed the ILO’s benchmark for Social Insurance Scheme, we inaugurated the Independence Investment Committee as provided by Sections 62 and 63 of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA 2010).

    “The Committee which is being headed by the Director-General of NECA, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo has its functions to include carrying out investment surveys in the economy and drawing up a list of safe investments; it will also initiate or carry out independent assessment of the investment activities of the board.”

    Abubakar who emphaised that regular investment in accident management infrastructure in companies with high susceptibility to workplace accident should be put in place, said action started with NSITF/NECA’s programme of annual awards to employers would measure up to standard required in Occupational Safety Health (OSH) and donation of OSH tools/equipment to others adjudged deficient in OSH standards.

  • NLC seeks end to ASUP, COEASU strikes

    The Federal Government has been urged to end the protracted strikes embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUP) and the Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union (COEASU) by acceding to the demands of the unions.

    Condemning the recent breakdown of talks between the Minister of Education and the leadership of ASUP over the full implementation of the 2009 Agreement, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) said the strikes in the polytechnics, which started since October last year, and  Colleges of Education since December last year, have brought further suffering on the students.

    According to the NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, the breakdown can be attributed to the irresponsibility of the minister who took a hard-line position and refused to move any inch in the negotiations to allow for mutual consensus.

    He noted that the same arrogance and insensitivity has also characterised the minister’s negotiations with COEASU whose demands are also based on not honouring  agreement by the Federal Government.

    “Congress is concerned that the prolonged strike action has led to the disruption of the academic calendar, truancy and vices among students as well as threatened the health of the education sector,”Omar stated.

    Stressing that those negative attitudes are bad for the quality of the nation’s education or the image of the country, he added that government’s serial breach of agreements with the unions, especially in the education sector, has had a telling effect on the well-being of the economy generally and education in particular.

    He said: “It is saddening that government is fast acquiring for itself a reputation of a partner that cannot be trusted to keep agreements it voluntarily entered into.

    “Yet, government cannot afford an image which inspires no confidence in the citizenry or the unions.”

    The labour leader insisted that all normal societies are governed by sets of laws and agreements and Nigeria should not be an exception.

    “In the light of the above, government should get its priority right by speedily responding to the demands of COEASU and ASUP for the sake of our children, our parents, our teachers, education system and the nation at large,” he said.

    Among the demands of ASUP are: the non-release of a White Paper on the Visitation Panel to Federal Polytechnics; non-release of funds for the implementation of CONTISS 15 migration and its arrears; the continued discrimination against polytechnic graduates in public service and during job search.

  • Union laments underfunding of judiciary

    The Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria (JUSUN) has expressed concern at what it termed deliberate plot by the executive to cage the judiciary.

    Its President, Comrade Marwan Mustapha, in a press statement, said the cut of about N91 billion in the 2014 Appropriation Bill of the judiciary, compared to that of last year is a plot to starve the judiciary of funds, thereby making it a toothless bulldog in its quest for improved justice system in Nigeria.

    Marwan said underfunding the judiciary as the 2015 general elections approaches, poses a great danger to the administration of justice in the country.

    “We commend the National Assembly, specifically the Joint Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters led by Senator Umar Dahiru for their efforts in seeing that the judiciary gets financial independence.

    “JUSUN calls on Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr. Ngozi Nkonjo-Iweala and the Director-General, Budget Office, Dr. Bright Okogu to listen to the voice of reason by addressing the monumental reduction in the budget of the judiciary from N159.8 billion to N68billion.

    “We also want to state that the continued non-compliance with the recent court order of the Federal High Court, Abuja as delivered on 13th January 2014 regarding sections 81(3), 121(3) and 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), by the relevant institutions, will spell doom and the union would not be held responsible for any industrial disharmony in the sector,” he said.

  • NIM, NYSC renew MoU on corps members’ training

    NIM, NYSC renew MoU on corps members’ training

    The Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) have agreed to renew the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the training and skills development of corps members during their service year.

    According to the NIM, the MoU will expire in June this year.

    Speaking during a courtesy visit to NYSC Director-General in Abuja, the President and Chairman of Council, NIM, Dr. Nelson Uwaga, said the MoU cemented the strategic partnership between both bodies, which took off in 2005.

    He said the partnership is meant to upgrade management skills of corps members, enhance their employability, improve their prospect of having their own businesses and for them to become employers of labour.

    While requesting that the MoU be renewed, Uwaga said:“This partnership is in the best interest of the nation and its teeming youth population. If the MoU is renewed, it will not only enable the institute to continue to fulfil one of its corporate social responsibilities of youth development to the nation, but will also help the beneficiaries to be self-reliant and readily employable on completion of the programme.”

    He said the institute, through its management training programme, has trained over 250,000 corps members in the areas of entrepreneurship and skills acquisition for self reliance since the inception of the partnership.

    “In addition to the professional management focused on self reliance training, which they receive during the six-month tuition free exercise, our records show that the number of corps members who die each year through road accidents has drastically reduced as they now use their spare time to attend lectures for the programme on weekends, “he said.

    The institute’s chairman called on the NYSC DG to nominate members of staff in his organisation to attend the NIM’s human capacity development and learning programmes.

    “Furthermore, I call on you to join the membership of the institute as the number one manager of the NYSC administration,” he added.

    In his response, the Director-General, NYSC, Brig-Gen. Johnson Olawunmi, stated that the corps is committed to getting the MoU renewed.

    “We have to ensure skills acquisition for our youth corps members, and from what I was told, I’ve come to realise that many corps members who partake in the programme are happy with it,” he said.

    Olawunmi noted that the NYSC is looking beyond renewing the MoU, adding that it was working out ways of expanding its collaboration with the institute.

  • RATTAWU to embark on warning strike

    The Radio, Television, Theatre and Arts Workers Union of Nigeria (RATTAWU), is set to embark on a three-day warning strike next week over the decay in the sector and failure of government to uplift the welfare of the staffs.

    In a letter addressed to the Minister of Information, signed by the Union’s President, Dr. Yemisi Bamgbose,  the union drew attention to the pathetic situation in the broadcast sector, most especially in the government-owned electronic media both at the Federal and State level.

    “The National Executive Council (NEC) of the union  unanimously agreed that the sector is in comatose. There is massive and unprecedented infrastructural decay that has culminated into abysmal signal output. The Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), which are supposed to be the arrowhead, pacesetter and flagship of broadcasting in Nigeria are shadows of themselves for some time now.

    “Many NTA and FRCN stations located in the state capitals have seized to operate due to equipment decay and lack of funding. At least, all the NTA community stations located at senatorial districts across the country are yet to be energised and those energised have packed-up. These have affected creativity and talent which are the hallmarks of media practice.

    He said at the state levels, most of the state-owned radio and television stations are synonymous to the famous Ikeja Police College, neglect and can be best described as museum centres where antiquities are kept. What you only see are moribund, out-dated and dilapidated equipment that are out of the memories of the manufacturers,” the union said.

    The union said the shrinking economy coupled with high running cost of broadcasting station is shattering the hopes and aspirations of investors in the private broadcast sector, adding that the epileptic power supply has made the broadcast industry both public and privately owned to depend heavily on diesel of which, the cost is not only very high but business unfriendly.

    On the welfare of staff, the union said it is unfortunate that the media practitioners are the least paid among other professions in Nigeria.

    “A comparative analysis of the sector with others clearly showed that media workers, welfare is abysmally low and ridiculous.

    “It is unbelievable the treatment meted out to the NTA Retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme. It is very sad that those that retired in that organisation received low gratuity and monthly pension as compared to their counterparts in the main stream of the civil service.

    These are people that have served this country with all their energies, strength and indeed with all they have.

    “Although they are no longer in active service but as a responsible Union, RATTAWU cannot fold its arms while those who have served meritoriously without blemish are left suffering for no fault of theirs,” it stated.

    It stated that adequate attention should be given to the issue of amending the constitutional provision that vests the right of collection of radio and television licence fees on the Local Government without provision for distribution.

  • Group calls for protests over death of youths

    Education Rights Campaign (ERC) has called on the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) to organise a mass protest over the avoidable wastage of the lives of scores of unemployed Nigerian youths during Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS ) recruitment test.

    ERC in a statement by its National Coordinator, Comrade Hassan  Soweto and National Secretary Michael Ogundele, urged the labour movement to organise a mass procession to protest and demand the immediate sack of  Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro and Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Mr. David Shikfu Parradang.

    “We specifically call on the labour movement, civil society organisations and unemployed youths, to organise a day of national mourning and mass procession to protest and demand the immediate sack of Minister of Interior, Mr. Moro and Parradang for gross incompetence and complicity in the death of unemployed youths over the weekend,” it said.

    “We also call for the refund of the N1,000 application fee and other payments to all applicants as well as the provision of decent and well-paid jobs to all unemployed youths commensurate to their qualifications and skills.

    “We call on the government to introduce a policy for the payment of unemployment benefit to all those requiring jobs but are not employed.

    According to ERC, the promising youths had gone for the test to seek means of keeping body and soul together only for them to be forced into their early graves.

    The statement said: “This is why the ERC, while staunchly advocating the rights for free and public-funded public education, never fails to call for a revolutionary overthrow of capitalism and its replacement by an alternative socialist system as the only real way out of Nigeria’s seemingly insurmountable crisis.

    “For as long as this unjust system of capitalism remains, this kind of unconscionable wastage of the lives of our youths, while hunting for jobs which ordinarily is their right, will continue to occur. This explains the refusal of the government to invest in turning these potential job openings into actual jobs so that the army of unemployed youths can apply for them,” the statement, added.

  • Oil workers reject sale of refineries

    Oil workers on the platform of Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG), have vowed to resist attempts by the Federal Government to sell the nation’s refineries.

    Its President, Comrade Igwe Achese who disclosed this in Lagos, stressed that statements by Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke that refineries must be privatised were uncalled for.

    Achesi said the development is a diversion and points to the failure of the ministry to address the perennial problem of scarcity of petroleum products being experienced in the country.

    He said NUPENG will resist attempts by the Federal Government to renege on an agreement signed with unions on January 7, 2014 in Abuja, which stipulated that refineries will not be privatised.

    According to Achesi, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) reached at that meeting with the government and the two trade unions in the oil and gas sector, NUPENG and PENGASSAN agreed that stakeholders should engage in social dialogue to develop viable and workable business models for the nation’s refineries.

    He noted that billions of naira have been budgeted and purportedly spent on the Turn-Around-Maintenance (TAM) of the refineries with nothing to show for it.

    “The union believes that the transformation agenda of Mr. President on job creation should be enhanced by allowing interested investors set up private refineries, like the Alhaji Aliko Dangote example in the free trade zone in Ondo/Ogun states, which will generate about 85,000 jobs.

    ”We warn that the union will not guarantee industrial peace and harmony if the threat by the Minister to privatise the refineries is carried out by the government, when it should spearhead the establishment of mini and mega refineries to complement what we already have and make sure the old ones  are rehabilitated,” he said.

  • Wogu commissions NDE, SURE-P joint-skills training centre

    The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, has commissioned the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) and the Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P) joint skills acquisition and training centre, in Aba, Abia State.

    The centre, which initially belong to the NDE, was rehabilitated, upgraded and sponsored under the SURE-P Technical Vocational Education and Training Project (TVET)

    While commissioning the centre, Chief Wogu said the project is part of the transformation agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, to provide jobs for the less privilege.

    He said the genesis of the project was the determination of the federal government to reinvest the savings recovered from the partial removal of subsidy on oil products to infrastructure development and people -oriented projects and programmes.

    He pointed out that the Community Service, Women and Youths Employment  (CSWYE)) of the SURE-P is one of the channels for the delivery of this promise to Nigerians.

    Former President of Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Nigeria and convener of TVET, Comrade Peter Esele, explained that N180 billion comes to SURE-P as annual budget, promising that the money would be judiciously used for the benefit of the generality of Nigerians.

    Esele, who was one of the prominent labour leaders who fought for the removal of oil subsidy during the January 2010 nation-wide mass protest against the removal, revealed that the SURE-P programme is good for the country.

  • SGF staff raise alarm over unpaid arrears

    Some aggrieved members of staff in the Office of the Secretary to the  Government of the Federation (OSGF) have said that arrears arising from their promotions have not been paid despite budgetary provision for same.

    It was reveal that over 30 members of staff who were promoted between 2009 and 2013 who are in the third batch, have not received payment of their arrears, while the 1st and 2nd batches have since been paid.

    Some of the affected staff said in 2012, the OSGF set up a task force to verify genuine claims and commenced payment in 2013 but ran into problems from the cash office with 10-digit NUBAN numbers of some claimants.

    The affected staff, who spoke on condition of anonymity, wondered why their claims, amounting to about N4 million could not be paid till now, when N23 million was provided for and set aside in a service-wide-account.

    The staff said the sum, raised vide a voucher by the Central Pay Office, was warehoused in a certain bank towards the end of 2013 such that it could not be returned to government as unspent funds.

    They however said the only response to any enquiry by them since January 2014, is that “nobody knows.”

    Attempts to hear from the spokesperson of the OSGF, Sam Nwaobasi were not successful as he did not pick phone calls and also did not reply the text and e-mail messages on the matter.