The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Character commission chief to tackle nepotism

    The Federal Character Commission (FCC) has vowed to tackle nepotism and other vices in workers’ recruitment into government ministries, departments and agencies.

    Acting Chairman of the commission, Alhaji Lawal Ibrahim Funtua, made the pledge at a workshop by FCC’s Committee on Science and Technology, for agencies under its purview in Abuja.

    Funtua said: “We were established to fight nepotism and other ills bedevilling recruitment in this country and that we have done, and we vow to intensify our activities against nepotism.

    “We will continue to ensure that, in each recruitment, merit exists. We have a formula which we strictly adhere to and through seminars, monitoring activities and sensitisation; we will insist that nepotism is halted.”

    Also, Chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of the FCC, Alhaji Yarima Aliyu Giade, said the workshop would foster a national consciousness aimed at giving every citizen a sense of belonging regardless of ethnicity and religion.

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Establishment and Public Service, Senator Akpan Etuk, has commended the management of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), for its efforts, advice and observations on harmonisation of salaries of workers in the country.

    In a statement signed by its spokesman, Maxwell Eseigbe, the commissioner said the committee also urged the Federal Ministry of Finance to release the balance of a recent allocation made to the commission to enable it execute vital projects on ground.

    Earlier, the Chairman of the commission, Richard Onwuka Egbule, said his team would continue to do its best in ensuring harmony in the compensation system in the country.

  • Sure-P-records 118,912 beneficiaries-Wogu

    The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, has revealed that beneficiaries of the Community Services Women and Youths Employment Project (CSWYE), of SURE-P, have reached 118, 912 in the 36 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory.

    Wogu disclosed this in Abuja during a formal meeting with members of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).

    Wogu said: “The volume of work done by the beneficiaries of CSWYE so far in all the states of the federation translated to a total of 160,548,400 man-hours, with environmental sanitation accounting for the highest value of 110,776,900 man-hours and traffic control the lowest, with a total of 3,817,300 man-hours output.

    He said a total of 118,912 persons, who comprise 75,823 males and 43,089 females; with 5122 physically challenged persons spread across a total of 8,864 service points in 11,139 communities of 8,993 wards across the 774 Local Government Areas of the federation are currently benefitting from the project.

    The Minister emphasised that the CSWYE Project of SURE-P is a promise kept to Nigerians, with the unique features that ensure transparency and accountability, adding that it is the first of its kind that has direct positive impact on the lives of poor women, youths and other vulnerable members of the society.

    In his remarks, the Chairman of the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on SURE-P, Senator Abdul Ningi, commended the minister for his transparent presentation, adding that it is worthy of emulation.

    Ningi affirmed that the CSWYE is a project that should be supported and sustained because of its direct bearing on the poor and vulnerable citizens of the country.

    “For us as a Senate and a Committee, we view this particular programme as very cardinal and very important to the wellbeing of the citizens of this Country. We believe if properly implemented, Community Services Women and Youths Employment Project of SURE-P will be a catalyst for development,” he said.

  • Education workers’ warning strike ends today

    THE Federal Ministry of Education workers’ warning strike, aimed at protesting the government’s failure to honour its pact with them planned to end last Friday, will end today.

    The workers under the auspices of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), in a letter to the Minister of Education, warned that the exercise might lead to a strike if the government failed to meet their demands.

    In a letter, the union said: “Additionally, we wish to inform the management of the Federal Ministry of Education that if nothing positive happens to our demands between November 26, 2013 and the end of the warning strike, other trade union actions which may include a full blown nationwide strike will be embarked upon by the Union to actualise the welfare interest of its members in the Ministry’’

    The letter signed by the Secretary-General of ASCSN, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, and sent to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Head of the Civil Service of the Federation and Director-General, State Security Services, noted the decision was taken by representatives of the Union from all its units in the ministry nationwide at a meeting held on Monday, November 25.

    The Union said the reason for the strike was the inability of the government to implement the agreement signed with the workers in March, this year on payment of all promotion arrears due to its members and other sundry matters.

    Expressing its grievance, the union said meetings were held between the Ministry and the union from March to last month, but the Federal Government refused to honour the agreement, though at each meeting, it has promised to pay.

    “It is, however, disheartening to note that eight months after the signing of the agreement and three months after the August 27 meeting, almost all the issues agreed upon, particularly payment of promotion arrears to affected members of staff were not implemented by the Ministry,” the union said.

    According to the union, the intervention of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, further restrained the workers from embarking on the strike as earlier proposed.

    “At the meeting, it was unanimously agreed that the Federal Ministry of Education should pay promotion arrears due to members of staff in the Ministry from 2007 to 2011 on or before the close of work on Monday, November 25, 2013,’’ he added.

    The secretary-general, however, said the ultimatum it gave to the ministry earlier had expired and nothing was done to implement the agreement, noting that it showed that government had taken the Union on a goose chase.

    “It is on record that the association paid series of visits to the Ministry to monitor the effort being made to implement the agreement.  Unfortunately, what we found out was not encouraging,” he added.

  • Tackling youth unemployment will lead to economic development

    With more than 80 per cent of Nigeria’s youth unemployed, stakeholders said tackling the problem by government and its partners would effectively place the country on the path of growth and sustainable development, TOBA AGBOOLA writes.

     

    The increase in youthful population has been described by analysts as a time bomb waiting to be detonated, considering that the country has the largest army of unemployed youths in Africa.

    They said  the inherent strength of a youthful population, coupled with the very large numbers of the Nigerian youth can be drawn upon by the government and the private sector for sustainable national development.

    Registrar and Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria(CIPM), Mr. Sunday Adeyemi, said, youths are the major economic drivers in any society, adding  that the employed or empowered Nigerian youth is capable of driving the country’s economy in the right direction.

    Adeyemi said considering that greater proportion of vices that ails the nation seem traceable to youths and their activities, it was only reasonable for engaging and constructive initiatives to be regularly introduced, in order to keep youths busy and productive at the same time.

    According to him, such situation where the nation’s youths can be kept busy and productive has not been achieved, in spite of numerous initiatives by the government and some private sector players to address the issue.

    He said there is clear evidence that promoting entrepreneurship consciously among youths can be an effective way of tackling unemployment within this group.

    He said this conclusion is drawn from the analysis of survey data collected from a stratified sample of loan beneficiaries of the small scale industries and graduate employment programme in Nigeria, adding that apart from entrepreneurship, other initiatives like vocational training can come to the rescue.

    Insisting that youth unemployment in Nigeria has maligned families and debased educational system, Labour Activist and President of Progressive Leadership Organisational International (PLOI), Mr. Emmanuel Ezueme, said many parents are frustrated and traumatised at seeing their sons and daughters turn to crime and prostitution because of unemployment.

    He said even younger children are now discouraged from being serious with their studies because their seniors who have been to school are jobless, frustrated and roaming all over the place. According to Ezueme, Nigeria’s youthful population should be a formidable advantage to the economy if well harnessed.

    “In addition to constituting a dynamic workforce to produce goods and services for the nation, they should also make-up the entrepreneurial class to drive the economy”, adding youths should be encouraged by creating the right environment to enable them turn their imagination into creation of new products and improvement of existing ones.

    Recently, Youth Leader and Former President of Children’s Parliament, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, accused  the Federal Government of not doing enough to address the problem of youth unemployment in the country, adding that the country’s youth, need to embark on a big campaign to ensure that jobs are created.

    ”There is no system in Nigeria that empowers young people to be easily employed by companies or even to be self-employed. Though governments at all levels are trying to introduce vocational trainings, I think it has not been well-prioritised”, Abdullahi said.

    He said government and the private sector should make sure that tackling youth unemployment remains on top of their agenda, because the issue of unemployment is a serious one and many youths have lost their lives in trying to get work in other countries.

    He said with the exceptions of electricity and Infrastructure, youth’s unemployment is the third biggest problem confronting Nigeria today.

    “It is the root cause of poverty, youth restiveness, gangsterism, bank robbery, kidnapping, assassination, lawlessness and all sorts of deviant behaviour”, he said.

    He  added that tertiary institutions dump over 300,000 graduates into the job market every year thereby exacerbating the situation.

  • N960b workers’ housing scheme to be launch in January

    The NLC had signed a N960 billion ($6 billion) partnership with the private property developer, Kriston Lally EPC Nigeria Limited, to provide houses for its members in both public and private sectors across the country, at affordable rate, and just at two per cent interest rate, payable over 10 to 15 years,and to be built in December.

    President Goodluck Jonathan will perform the launch and flag-off ceremony for the construction of the houses, meant to provide affordable houses for Nigerian workers in January, 2014, while the congress and its partners have also assured that the President would hand over the houses to subscribers in December 2014.

    The arrangement to kick-start the construction was arrived at when the leadership and some staffers of Nigeria Labour Congress,NLC, led by its President, Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, visited their foreign partners and funder in Athens, Greece.

    Comrade Omar and the Managing Director of Kriston Lally Nigeria, Alhaji Mustapha Madawaki, who spoke with journalists in Abuja, said the team which went to Greece was able to finalise the agreement, how the funds and technical know-how as well as materials would be moved to Nigeria for the commencement of the project.

    Comrade Omar said the trip to Greece was one of the most purposeful and progressive, because the purpose was for the Nigerian workers and how they could get houses of their own at affordable rate.

    He stated that one of their promises to their members, when they came in as leaders on NLC,  was to do as much as possible to ensure that as many workers as possible got shelter before they retired, because housing was one of the very serious problems facing Nigerian workers today.

    Omar said: “The partnership is about providing quality and affordable housing for the Nigerian workers. We have found in this Kriston Lally a very formidable partnership that we can rely on, we can trust and we can work with.”

    He assured those who had paid their 10 per cent that the congress would never get itself in a position where their money would be tampered with, adding that the money would not be part of construction process, but a security to show commitment from the subscribers.

    Describing the housing scheme as a very wonderful initiative, he pointed out that the meeting with the foreign partners and the funder during the trip was successful, adding that the Nigeria Embassy was also involved in the whole process.

    He pointed out that the Nigeria Ambassador to Greece, Mr Ayodeji Ayodele, who also hosted the partners, said the collaboration with the Greek company would bring succour and happiness to the lives of Nigerian workers, saying it was in line with their objective in Greece.

    The Managing Director and Chief Executive of Kriston Lally Nigeria, Alhaji Mustapha Madawaki, described the visit and the meeting as wonderful.

    He said: “By and large, we have totally agreed that the NLC play its role and the funders are very much aware of the need to start releasing funds probably in December. That will enable us mobilise and move to the site.”

    Alhaji Madawaki pointed out that about 5,000 workers had already subscribed for the phase one of the scheme in Abuja before a decision was taken to stop people who were rushing to be part of the project daily.

    Alhaji Madawaki explained that more people were stopped from coming in order not to get subscription beyond the target slated for the first phase.

    But he said that by the time they put together Lagos, Port Harcourt and other states,  the subscription would commence immediately after their trip, adding that the total number of subscribers would  be 100, 000, while the second phase would start in Abuja second quarter of next year.

    He said the types of houses include one-bedroom which were in apartments, two bedroom detached and semi-detached, three bedroom detached and semi-detached in apartments and then four bedroom bungalows, four bedroom duplexes, detached and semi-deached.

  • NECA urges govt on privatisation of refineries

    NECA urges govt on privatisation of refineries

    THE Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has implored the the refineries in the country.

    NECA’s Director-General, Mr Olusegun Osinowo,  said privatising the refineries was inevitable to stop the deluge of  petroleum products importation, as well as check the subsidy, which has no positive  impact on Nigerians.

    He argued that selling the refineries would give respite for the huge funds expended on their turnaround maintenance.

    He said the ills besetting the nation’s downstream sector of the petroleum industry would be addressed if the private sector was allowed to maintain the refineries.

    Oshinowo, however, warned that the impact would be damning on the economy if labour issues were not well-handled under the privatisation agenda.

    While praising President Goodluck Jonathan for the courage in privatising the sector, which he said could be seen as a defined legacy for the administration, he regreted that the process was being marred by industrial relations issues.

    “The big issue that nobody is talking about, though the BPE and the NERC have done the needful in privatisation, is that we have not seen their template in the area of industrial relations,” he said, adding that the most that have been done was the physical take over, but not the human take-over, insisting that failure to do that would cause undue crisis which could endanger the economy.

    He said: “ If the nation could tolerate four months of strike in the education sector, I don’t think the economy can withstand that if the workers in the power sector should decide to withdraw their services.

    “The Ministry of Labour should be echoing this and should be talking to the new employers. We shouldn’t wait until the bubble bursts before we start running from pillar to post.”

    Harping on the need for collaboration between the employers and the unions in the sector, he explained that there is need for the new employers to come together to interact with the unions to avert the impending crisis.

    To forestall this, Oshinowo said NECA has scheduled a meeting with the new employers in the power sector for early next month. He advised the unions talk to the new employers as against the Ministries of Power and Labour.

    He said the unions were not talking to the right people, because the duty has been shifted to the new employers, stressing that NECA was ready to bridge the gap between the employers and the employees to ensure that there is industrial harmony.

    He said the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and other government’s agencies that superintended the sale of the power assets to the new investors did not consider any industrial relations templates during the auctioning of the assets.

    He explained that the new owners must deem it necessary to give workers the right to unionism and collective bargaining to enable them have a sense of belonging in the organisation.

    He warned that failure on the part of the owners to use industrial relations as a guide would spell doom for the power sector and the nation at large.

    Oshinowo said  the privatisation of the refineries should be treated separately from the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), now at the National Assembly, adding that because the power sector has been privatised and the assets of the defunct PHCN ceded to the new owners, was not a guarantee for efficient power supply.

    He said Nigerians should take cognisance of the challenges in the sector, stressing that they would take some time to overcome.

  • NDE unveils entrepreneurship scheme

    NDE unveils entrepreneurship scheme

    The National Directorate of Employment (NDE) has introduced a new programme – the Advanced Entrepreneurship Development Programme (A-EDP) – designed to prepare its trained beneficiaries to access enhanced micro credit.

    A-EDP, which was unveiled by the Director-General, Mallam Abubakar Mohammed, is to ensure that beneficiaries do not only get paid to get trained, but also receive capital for the skills and trades they have learnt.

    He lauded the Federal Government’s policy of inclusive growth, part of which, he explained, is aimed at creating employment and other economic opportunities for the poor and vulnerable people in the society.

    NDE is a collaborative partner in the implementation of the  skills for job (S4J) initiative  under the World Bank assisted Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), adding that its operation is designed to grant poor families access to increased opportunities for youth employment and other social services. He stressed that sustained livelihood of the poor can effectively be achieved through skill acquisition.

    He said NDE has in the last one and half years, recorded a total of 145,183 beneficiaries within the platform of the vocational, agricultural, entrepreneurial and transient jobs training segment.

  • ‘Africans should re-examine relations with China’

    ‘Africans should re-examine relations with China’

    African labour unions have urged governments on the continent to re-examine their relationship with China, accusing it of unfair dealings in tapping the continent’s resources.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the Trade Union Congress, Ghana (TUC-Ghana) spoke in Abuja where they brainstormed on issues affecting Africans.

    A communiqué signed by the First Deputy President of COSATU,Tyotyo James; President of NLC,Abdulwahed Ibrahim Omar and Secretary-General ,TUC (Ghana), Kofi Asamoawa, also urged governments to create a roadmap for the reindustrialisation in the continent.

    It said: “Africa should re-examine its relationship with China as China is not interested in Africa’s industrialisation but only in its raw materials to drive China’s industrialisation.

    “Industrialisation is an agenda that the people of Africa must pursue and that Africa must develop in order not to remain a market for goods and services from industrialised nations.”

    It added that women and youth structures must be accommodated in the unions, constitutions, saying there must be deliberate policies to address their issues.

  • ‘Sacked PHCN workers’ll get jobs’

    ‘Sacked PHCN workers’ll get jobs’

    For the almost 47, 000 workers of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) who lost their jobs recently, there is hope.

    The workers that constituted the bulk of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE), and the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies (SSAEAC), stakeholders said, are employable.

    The Chief Executive Officer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Sunday Adeyemi said the disengaged workers stand better chances of landing jobs in the post – sector reforms era than any new employee from outside.

    He said this view was true because thousands of the disengaged electricity sector workers have the knowledge of the operations of the power plants and other PHCN facilities across the country, adding that it would take months, or even years for the new owners of the power companies to source for new manpower for their companies.

    Insisting that experience counts and plays a major role in the recruitment of workers, particularly for those workers in technical and high skill areas, the CIPM Registrar said all the disengaged PHCN workers need do, is update and improve on their skills and competencies, to make them relevant to the new owners of the power companies.

    “The workers need to be ready to move on and find a positive way forward. It is also important to have worked out any issues concerning wrongful termination because this can prevent you from moving on,” he said, adding that it was important for the former workers to leave whatever pain they felt behind them, saying the they should not be ashamed of their job loss.

    Chairman, Lagos Chapter, NUEE, Mr. Adeleke Ibrahim, said the Federal Government’s reasons for not having the money, or will to implement the reforms was a challenge.

    He had pointed out that while the sector unions were not against privatisation of the PHCN, or the power reforms, he urged the government to pay the workers their entitlements before the new owners start operations, noting that this would put the disengaged workers on a sure footing in their quest to forge ahead in their new career.

    The Lagos State NUEE boss said some of the issues in contention, which included the non-payment of retirement savings to pension fund administrators and non-remittance of dues of two per cent deducted from workers’ salaries to the unions, be addressed, adding that a workforce without pensions and one that faces threats of sack, would not be active or productive.

  • ILO assures Fed Govt of support in fight against human trafficking

    ILO assures Fed Govt of support in fight against human trafficking

    The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has assured the Federal Government of its support to fight human trafficking.

    ILO’s Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, The Gambia and Liaison Office for Economic Community of West Africa States(ECOWAS), Mrs. Sina Chuma-Mkandwire, made this known while presenting eight different publications on human trafficking and forced labour to the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, in Abuja.

    She said ILO would continue to collaborate with Nigeria on the implementation of the European Union’s (EU) funded project to enhance cooperation with the Federal Government of Nigeria on the fight against human trafficking from Nigeria to Europe under which different training manuals, reports and a code of conduct for private employment agencies were developed and printed.

    Recently, the Deputy Director-General of International Labour Organisation (ILO), Greg Vines, called on United Nation’s (UN) agencies to work towards eliminating human exploitation.

    Vines, who  addressed the Anti-Human Trafficking week in Switzerland, said the event was aimed at raising the awareness of the international community and the public on the different kinds of human exploitation that exist, such as forced labour, bonded labour and domestic servitude.

    He said: “Recognising our common goal to fighting human trafficking and human exploitation worldwide, the Geneva-based UN agencies must continue to work in the future to promote better coordination on these important issues, and fashion a coherent strategy that brings together our complementary approaches.”

    The ILO director explained that the scale and diverse nature of the problem, calls for comprehensive solutions, such as strict punishment of those who benefit from exploitation, saying that this must be complemented by good preventive measures.

    He said such measures include strengthening labour laws, providing access to skills, information and training, as well as improved victim care and compensation.