The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Group seeks responsible reporting

    TO drive sustainable industrial growth and job creation , there is need for proper reporting, the Centre for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) has said.

    Its Country Director, CIPE Nigeria, Mrs. Omowumi Gbadamosi, said at a workshop that the role of the media cannot be undermined in economic development and job creation, adding that it must carry out in-depth analysis on issues affecting businesses and the economy.

    She tasked journalists to use the media to attract the Federal Government’s attention to create jobs and enabling business environment towards business groups and associations.

    According to her, the business sector is the only sector to achieve economic growth and development, noting that that the private sector has a crucial role to achieve this feat.

    “The sector to provide economic development and business sustainability is the private sector, because the nexus between the economy and sustainability is vital to achieve any meaningful growth for this country and only the business sector can provide this through trade and professional association,” she said.

    She continued: “The workshop will highlight the strategic role of the Media in Business Advocacy and the need for effective coverage of business advocacy programs. This will further enhance the capacity of the associations to conduct business advocacy effectively.

     

     

    She said CIPE supports freedom of association and grassroot participation of private sector organisations by providing executive management courses and educational materials, assistance on advocacy strategies and organisation governance, and support for market-oriented member services.

    She pointed out that the general objectives of all business associations are to help businesses grow, increase job opportunities, encourage development of the community and promote private enterprise.

    She also called on the need for coalition groups to work closely with business associations in order to achieve common goals and drive business growth in the country.

    She highlighted the elements of a successful business association to include, a sound organisational structure; definite objectives, participating membership; adequate finances; responsible leadership and skilled administrative staff

    She said the most important function of a business association is to identify laws and regulations that hinder business activity; offer specific recommendations and policy options; educate the private sector on public policies that affects business associations and allow the business community to speak with a unified voice.

    She added that CIPE is involved in increasing support for and understanding the freedom, rights, responsibilities essential to market oriented democracies among government officials, business people, media and the public.

  • Education: JAF, ERC urge Labour to call for protest

    The Joint Action Front (JAF) in collaboration with the Education Rights Congress (ERC) has called on the organised labour, under the aegis of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), to support a mass protest against the rot in the education sector by calling out workers on a two-day strike

    JAF’s Secretary, Comrade Abiodun Aremu, who led the rally in Lagos, said his group would collaborate with other civil society groups in Nigeria to shut down the nation if concerned authorities fail to give urgent attention to its yearning.

    He said: ’’Top civil servants and those close to the corridors of power were the beneficiaries of public education, even as some of them established private universities and private schools in Nigeria and abroad with looted funds.”

    ‘’That explains why they are not bothered when Public primary, secondary and tertiary institutions are shut, and pupils and students have to remain at home for a long as the unions are frustrated to resume without government acceding to their legitimate demands’’

    Aremu, who lamented that Nigeria is funding education with less than eight per cent,in contravention international standard of 26 per cent for same, said: “The unions in the education sector are on strike because the Federal and state governments in the country refused to implement agreements reached with them.”

    According to him, teachers and non-teaching staff are the poorest paid in the world, while the nation’s politicians received the fattest pay among their contemporaries.

    The rally, which kicked off at the NLC’s office, Yaba, Lagos and ended at Maryland , had personalities, such as Treasurer of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Comrade Ademola Aremu, President of Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics (ASUUP), Comrade Chibuzor, former Governorship aspirant in Lagos, Comrade Ayodele Akele and union heads in College of Educations.

    The National Coordinator of the Education Rights Congress (ERC), Comrade Hassan Taiwao-Soweto, while commending the stakeholders in the education sector for their doggedness to uphold the struggle to free education sector from poor funding by the state, noting that the ongoing strike is a Nigerian concern and not that of ASUU alone.

    He, however, appealed to the leadership of the NLC and the TUC to also lend a voice to the agitation by calling out workers on a 48 national strike in solidarity with students, lecturers and the public.

  • TUC Housing Estates coming

    The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) is set to end its members housing problems by providing them with affordable houses.

    To actualise the objective, its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, said the Congress is collaborating with national and international partners to get resources to develop the proposed TUC Housing Estates across the country.

    He said: “We have international development partners who intend to bring resources for the development of this vital sector. We have signed Memorandum of Understanding to this effect and very soon, you will begin to see the result.

    “But there is this other option which, after fighting for a very long time, we have been able to resolve. Our members have just been contributing to the National Housing Fund without any form of representation on the board of Federal Mortgage Bank. After meeting with the government, we have come to understand ourselves. Now NLC and TUC are on the board of the bank,” he stated.

    Kaigama said the transport policy of his predecessor, Comrade Peter Esele would be sustained, as his leadership plans to extend the Lagos- based mass transit business to other parts of the country.

    “We intend to provide housing for our teeming members, particularly those in the urban centres and state capitals. We are collaborating with national and international development partners to ensure that within the next one year, we’ll start delivering on our promises.”

    He stressed the need to fulfill all electoral promises to union members.

    He said: “We promised fellow delegates that first and foremost, we will strengthen the national secretariat and embark on the training of staff to make them better workers who can meet international standards. We also want to make very strong presence in Abuja. By God’s grace, within the next few months, we should have a very strong secretariat in Abuja.”

    He called for adjustment of the national minimum wage to conform with inflationary trends.

    He said workers earlier agitated for N50,000 national minimum wage, but got N18,000. That leaves an unsettled wage balance of N32,000.

    He also said: “One aspect of confidence rebuilding is to ensure that issues that come to the front burner are treated with dispatch. For now, what we have to do is to protect the welfare of our members and the general public. We are going to ensure that Nigerian workers who are the wealth creators are not shortchanged in the scheme of things. We must have a fair deal.”

    On the challenge of combining unionism with work, he said: “I am a state government worker and because of my activism I had issues with my governor in Taraba State.

    ‘’Apart from Nasarawa, there is no state in the north paying up to what my state is paying. That was because TUC was under my leadership. We will always protect our members’ interest. But that is not to say that when government has superior point, we will not bow to such. This is not an era of table banging. We will always put our cards on the table and open our minds to other’s views,” he said.

    “Remember that I have been the chairman of Association of Senior Civil Servants in Taraba State, Chairman of Trade Union Congress in Taraba State before I moved on to become the vice president of the association and the president of the association. Now, I am the President of TUC.

     

     

     

     

  • Fed Govt to tackle unemployment through MSMEs

    Fed Govt to tackle unemployment through MSMEs

    The Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, said the Federal Government is committed to addressing the challenges of unemployment in the country through the development of a robust sustainable Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sub sector.

    He disclosed this at a workshop on the revised policy of the MSMEs and the launch of National Enterprises Development Programme (NEDEP) and the Ogun State Council on MSMEs in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

    He said the Federal Government created 32million indirect jobs through the 17.2 MSMEs in 2012 alone, adding that government has concluded plans to create five million jobs by 2015 through the expansion of MSMEs.

    The minister promised to forward a proposal to the Federal Executive Council on the need to ensure production of school uniforms from made-in-Nigeria fabrics in order to encourage enterprise development.

    “There is no reason why school uniforms cannot be made even from adire textiles,’’ he said.

    Director-General, SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, pointed out that the National Policy on MSMEs, which outlined the general parameters and directions within which MSMEs programmes, interventions and initiatives would be designed, implemented, monitored and evaluated, would serve Nigeria from 2013-2015 and would be reviewed every four years.

    Masari said the policy’s success was hinged on five critical prerequisites which include the need to streamline and decentralise MDAs at the federal, state and local governments, engage in MSME development, improve the capacity of the streamlined organisations to deliver high quality services, institutionalise public-private dialogue and partnerships in MSME policy implementation.

    It also include provision of funding from the public, private and non-profit sectors at the federal, state and local government levels, measurement and evaluation of MSME survey on an annual basis to ensure impact assessment and additional policy and programme modifications.

    According to him, some of the special target enterprises under the policy include cottage agro and agro-allied enterprises, cottage arts and crafts, textiles and clothing, wood processing and furniture, leather and leather products, basic metal, metal fabrication and engineering enterprises, solid mineral enterprises, electronic and information technology enterprises , building and construction enterprises.

  • Minimum wage decentralisation will hurt economy, warns NECA

    The Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) has warned that the decision of the Senate to decentralise the national minimum wage will affect the economy.

    NECA, the umbrella body for employers in the country, urged the Ministry of Labour and Productivity not to remain silent on the issue that affects workers across the country.

    Director-General, NECA, Mr Segun Oshinowo, said the matter ought to have been discussed on the platform of social partners before any decision on minimum wage review could be taken.

    He said the argument that setting a minimum wage by the Federal Government violated the principle of true federalism was baseless, because it should not be about duplication of roles and overlapping responsibilities.

    Oshinowo said: “The Ministry of Labour and Productivity should not be quiet on this matter as it has great implication on the economy. We believe true federalism should not be on the portal of duplicating of roles or overlapping responsibilities. So government should not duplicate regulatory responsibility over us.”

    President, NECA, Mr Richard Uche, decried the state of the economy, particularly the rising youth unemployment, warning that it is a time bomb, which if not urgently addressed may erode the social harmony and stability in the polity.

    The NECA chief said efforts by the government to create quality jobs in the country had not yielded the needed result because the government, according to him, was merely scratching the issue on the surface.

    Recently, the Senate had voted that the minimum wage be handled at the state levels.

    Arguing that the decision to remove minimum wage from the exclusive list was based on the need to protect and nurture the nation’s democracy.

     

  • ‘427,294 new jobs created in 2012’

    NO fewer than 427,294 new jobs were created in the third quarter of last year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.

    In a survey by NBS, which was signed by the Statistician-General of the Federation, Dr. Yemi Kale, the Bureau said the need to fill a position vacated by an ex-employee recorded the highest percentage of those employed with 29.9 per cent.

    The report added that 56,528 employees exited from various businesses in the third quarter of last year with most of them from the clerical cadre.

    NBS noted in the report that the informal sector, with 240,349 fresh new jobs, generated the highest employment within the period under review.

    The 240,349 figure, it noted accounted for 55.25 per cent of the total number of jobs created in the period.

    There are over 17 million enterprises in the informal sector, according to the report.

    The formal sector, with 164,293 jobs represents 38.45 per cent; and the public sector, with 22,642, or 5.3 per cent, followed in that order.

    “During the third quarter of 2012, 240,359 jobs are estimated to have been created in the informal sector, representing 55.25 per cent, followed by the formal sector with 164,293 jobs representing 38.45 per cent, and the public sector was 22,642, which is about 5.3 per cent.

    “The total estimated number of jobs created in the economy for the third quarter of 2012 came to 427,294,” the report added.

    It also showed that the government remained the major employer having a total number of 612,197 employees.

    Of this figure, it said 400,377 or 65.4 per cent were males, while the remaining 211,820 or 34.6 per cent were females.

    The report added: “The total number of jobs created in public institutions was estimated to be 22,642 in the third quarter of 2012.

    “Of these, 65.3 per cent were males. Academic institutions had the highest number of jobs created, taking 40 per cent of the total number.

    “This was followed by the state parastatals with 32.2 per cent. Federal ministries had the least number with 0.33 per cent.”

    It stated that people within the age bracket of 15 to 35 years constituted the bulk of people employed by the jobs created in the quarter with 72.8 per cent, while the remaining 26.6 per cent represented age group 36 to 59 years.

    The age group of 60 and above, it added, recorded 0.6 per cent of the total number of new employee.

  • PenCom: N9.6b not remitted into workers’ account

    About N9.6 billion has not been remitted into the workers’ Retirement Savings Accounts, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) has said.

    In a statement, it said: “The compliance report showed some inconsistencies on the part of Pension Fund Administrators, which included un-reconciled and un-credited contributions that amounted to N8.367 billion and N1.29 billion.”

    The commission also said it discovered about 146 cases of unpaid benefits that had earlier been approved by the commission and wrongful debit of N39million on some RSAs by a Pension Fund Custodian.

    It, however, said it had forwarded compliance letters to the concerned operators on the listed inconsistencies.

    Other issues, according to the statement, include non-implementation of commitments made during examinations of operators; violation of the Pension Reform Act, 2004; violation of regulations, guidelines, circulars, and framework; and non-issuance of statements of account and Personal Identification Numbers (PIN) to customers by some operators.

    According to PenCom, the need to ensure the safety of pension assets, fair returns on investment and sustainability of the industry necessitated the need to proactively regulate and supervise the pension industry in order to achieve the aims and objectives of the PRA 2004.

    It stated that the supervisory approach rested on risk-based philosophy to cope with the challenges posed by the dynamics of the operating environment.

    On risk management among the pension operators, PenCom said during the third quarter of 2012, it observed some irregularities in the risk management reports submitted by operators.

    These included unprocessed benefit applications and un-credited contributions by a PFC; discrepancies between contribution schedules and the payment instruments forwarded by some employers; delay in the payment of retirees’benefits and non-compliance with the fund accounting guidelines by some operators. Another challenge was in the area of information communication technology (ICT) in core application software, servers and other support equipment.

    Consequently, it said, letters had been sent to the affected operators to address the issues.

    PenCom also observed the violation of the code of corporate governance for pension fund operators as issued by the commission.

     

     

     

  • Minister, TUC condole with NUJ, bereaved families

    The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have sympathised with the President, Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), Mallam Garba Mohammed and the members over the death of their colleagues last weekend, describing the incident as unfortunate.

    The Minister said: “I received with shock the sudden death of active journalists cut down in their prime ages by the cold hand of death in a ghastly (fatal) motor accident in Ilesa, Osun State. I share in the pains and identify with NUJ and the families of the deceased in this moment of grief.”

    In a statement, TUC said: “It is with great shock and sadness that the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria received the untimely death of members of the NUJ, who died in a motor accident that occurred in Ilesa, Osun State. Indeed, the deceased can best be described as heroes, who dedicated their professional lives towards the progress of the country.

    “The congress shares in this pain and earnestly identifies with the families of the bereaved and journalists throughout the country. It is unfortunate that the renowned journalists had their lives cut short in their prime. It was a big shock to the congress.

    “We, however, wish to use this opportunity to charge the government at all levels to deliver the dividends of democracy by fixing the roads and also ensuring that all practicing journalists are insured. Once again, may Allah grant the NUJ and bereaved families the fortitude to bear the losses.”

  • TUC chief seeks skills for youths

    TUC chief seeks skills for youths

    ACQUISITION of entrepreneurial skills has been identified as one way of curbing youth vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.

    Towards this end, the Federal Government has been charged to support young men and women to get skills.

    Addressing reporters in Lagos, President, Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, who advocated the idea, said the government could partner the private sector through funding to train and enhance the business development skills of unemployed youths, many of who are riding commercial motor cycles, driving commercial taxi or roaming the streets in search of jobs to become entrepreneurs.

    He said: ”We believe that if young men and women are economically empowered, it will reduce their vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, make them useful to the economic development of Nigeria.”

    “There is a need to tackle the underlying factors that lead to risk-taking behaviour of the youth in the country, and to incorporate HIV prevention efforts into a wider approach to curbing the high rate of unemployment,” he said.

    According to the TUC’s President , majority of the country’s youths are in the informal sector, where there are few opportunities and are frequently neglected in the national HIV response, partly because they are often hard to reach.

    “We call on the three tiers of government, the federal, states and the local government to launch an initiative targeting young people with an approach that looks beyond traditional way of tackling unemployment, but also creating jobs and making the youths self-employed.

    “The government training programmes targeting young people would help to give young people skills and opportunities to become more self-reliant, and reduce their HIV vulnerability in the country because an idle mind is the devil’s workshop.

    “The government training project would help to realise enormous untapped potentials among the youth in the country, especially with the support of a small loan fund for the youth who have been trained and developed through an acceptable business plan to make them become entrepreneurs,” he said.

  • NLC urges govt to resolve Rivers crisis

    NLC urges govt to resolve Rivers crisis

    President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Abdulwahed Omar, has called on President Goodluck Jonathan, to intervene in the political crisis in Rivers State.

    Omar, who made the call at the opening ceremony of the 11th NLC Rain School, in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, described the recent political crisis in the state where five lawmakers in the state House of Assembly attempted to impeach the Speaker as capable of derailing democracy in the country.

    He said: “We urged President Goodluck Jonathan to display uncommon statesmanship by intervening in the political crisis rocking Rivers State”.

    “Of importance to the working class has been the rate and extent of impunity in the country.

    “The show of shame in Rivers State where only five legislators in the state House of Assembly attempted to impeach the speaker ,and the protracted travails of the Governor, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, are capable of derailing democracy in our country.

    “We reiterate our call on Mr President to demonstrate uncommon statesmanship by ensuring that the political crisis in Rivers State is checked and resolved in the interest of the people of the state and the nation,” he said.