The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Civil society scores Fed Govt low on budget performance

    A group of civil society organisations (CSOs) has described the implementation of capital budgets at national and sub-national levels as poor in terms of its impact on ordinary Nigerians.

    To reverse the trend, the members of the group restated their commitment to intensify their monitoring and evaluation of capital disbursements to improve the performance of the budgets on a sustainable basis.

    The CSOs, which include the government; Civil Society Partnership Project, Niger-Delta Monitoring Group, Procurement Observation and Advocacy Initiative and Citizen’s Centre for Integrated Development and Social Rights, lamented the high Executive and Legislative indiscipline in the implementation of the budget with the attendant negative implications for development.

    In a communiqué at the end of their Legislature-Civil Society Roundtable on Monitoring Evaluation and Reporting on the budget organised by the NGO Unit, the organisations also expressed serious concern about Nigeria’s ability to attain the objects of Vision 20:2020 if the budget implementation is sustained.

    Noting that it has been difficult to measure the performance of multiple project claims by different Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), to reduce waste, fraud and abuse of public resources due to poor budget monitoring and oversight lapses, they also faulted the envelope system which, they added, was not allowing the real needs of the citizens to be identified and provided for.

    Other lapses identified as undermining the capital budgets over the years include less attention given to special policies, such as gender affirmative action, local content initiatives of the government, and other critical policies, less emphasis and awareness by the CSOs in advocating to the government to provide citizens with accurate budget data, and non-state actors’inadequate capacity, especially in budget tracking, monitoring and evaluation, as well as procurement to help deliver the right results.

     

  • ILO, UNAIDS target 5m workers with HIV/AIDS by 2015

    THE International Labour Organisation (ILO), supported by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has called on African governments to keep the fight against HIV/AIDS on the front burner.

    This, they noted, can be achieved by taking action to accelerate the eradication of the pandemic, especially through its new VCT@work initiative to reach five million workers with voluntary and confidential HIV counselling and testing by 2015.

    Speaking on the target, Director, ILO Programme on HIV/AIDS, Alice Ouedraogo, said VCT@work is the ILO’s contribution to achieving Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6 on combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

    It includes ensuring access to treatment for 15 million people living with HIV by 2015, as set out in the 2011 UN General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS.

    According to Ouedraogo, though about seven million people are eligible for treatment, they are not accessing it.

    Worse still, the majority of them do not know their HIV status.

    ‘’The workplace is an ideal entry point to generate a demand for, and increased access to, testing and treatment.

    “While standing firmly by the principle that there should be no HIV screening for employment, the ILO’s VCT@WORK initiative re-energises voluntary testing and emphasises the right of workers to know their status and access treatment when needed,” she said.

    She emphasised that the ILO’s employer and worker social partners will play a key role as agents of change to normalise and demystify HIV testing in the implementation of the initiative in the country.

    She noted that the launch of the initiative took place during the ILO International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, which brought together about 5,000 delegates, representing governments, employers and workers from the ILO’s 185 member states to discuss issues, including social protection in an ageing world, sustainable development and social dialogue.

    She noted that the rapid expansion of antiretroviral therapy in recent years has allowed eight million people living with HIV to access treatment, enabling them to live longer, healthier and more productive lives and remain part of the workforce.

    Speaking on the new initiative, President, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, said if young men and women are economically empowered, it will reduce their vulnerability to HIV in Nigeria.

    “There is a need to tackle the underlying factors that led to risk-taking behaviour and to incorporate HIV prevention efforts into a wider approach”, he said

    Also, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Comrade Bala Kagaima, said: “It is clear that the new ILO strategy will broaden actions to address HIV through national safety and health systems, labour inspection, working conditions and social security.

    “We do hope that the strategy will increase focus on women and girls, young people and workers in the informal economy, and it will target the transport, mining, commerce and tourism sectors, SMEs and cooperatives.

    “We call on the ILO to use its mobilising power to encourage five million working women and men to undertake voluntary HIV testing to meet the estimated target by 2015.”

  • LG autonomy: NULGE seeks partnership with PSI

    LG autonomy: NULGE seeks partnership with PSI

    President, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Comrade Ibrahim Khaleel, has called on Public Service International (PSI) to collaborate with the union to strengthen the local government system in Nigeria.

    Khaleel made the appeal when the General Secretary of PSI, Rosamaria Pavanelli, who was on a working visit in Nigeria visited NULGE’s headquarters in Abuja.

    Khaleel said: “Our members are spread across the country and play a very great role in stabilising the country but we face many constraints both constitutional and unfortunately, because of the greed of governors, local governments are finding it difficult to operate.

    “But we must work together to make it strong and viable. The local government is the only hope the rural populace have with regards to good governance and opportunities. However, we are hopeful of a positive future.

    “In November 2012, the National Assembly organised public hearings across the length and breadth of the nation and the outcome is that support for autonomy is almost 98 per cent. Our agitation is gathering momentum.

    “For that reason, we call on the PSI to join in the struggle to emancipate the local government system because it is the one closest to the people and the only tier of government where real masses have access to governance.”

    On her part, Sister Rosamaria pledged to work with NULGE to ensure that the local government remains financially autonomous for it to carry out its functions

    “We, at the PSI, are in contact with the ILO to develop a new line of activity for the strengthening of the local governments,” she said.

  • Fed Govt targets 350,000 jobs in 2 years

    • Unveils Enterprises Devt Scheme

    About 350,000 jobs are expected to be created between now and 2015 through the National Enterpriser Development Plan (NEDEP), Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Olusegun Aganga, has said.

    Aganga, who stated this during the launch of NEDEP and Kano State Council on Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise Sector, (MSMEs), said the main objective of NEDEP is to create 3.5 million direct jobs or five million indirect and direct jobs by 2015.

    ‘’The NEDEP programme is geared towards creating an additional 350,000 direct and indirect new jobs between now and 2015 in Kano State alone,” he said.

    Aganga commended the Kano State Government for taking the bold initiative in composing the MSME council.

    ‘’This goes to show the commitment and determination of the Kano state Government to empower its people,’’ he said.

    He lauded Governor Kwankwaso for creating 250,000 entrepreneurs, out of which 80 per cent are women.

    The minister said the programme is in line with the ministry’s commitment to create jobs, generating wealth and enhance economic growth that the MSME council came on board and became the top target of the ministry to achieving such.

    Nigeria currently has 17.3 million MSMEs, which represent 96 per cent of the businesses in the country. The sector has also contributed 75 per cent and 47 per cent to Nigeria’s labour and GDP respectively, he added.

    Aganga said: “The major critical inhibiting factors for MSMEs were access to finance, markets, lack of adequate infrastructure, lack of skills and business development and entrepreneurship training, as a result my ministry has developed NEDEP as new, strategic and revolutionary way of delivering enterprise development in Nigeria aimed at revitalising MSME sectors.”

    The Kano MSME council, which is the first to be inaugurated in the country, is to be used as the driving mechanism for all enterprise development programmes across the country.

    The council will report to the National Council on MSME, which will soon be inaugurated by President Goodluck Jonathan.

    The Council on MSMEs has its membership drawn from Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency (SMEDAN), Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Bank of Industry (BoI), National Association of Small Scale Industries (NASSI), NASME, KACCIMA, various private organisations and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).

    It (Council) will also ensure the creation of an enabling environment to facilitate the development of MSME clusters, infrastructure upgrade, access to finance, and MSME capacity building.

    In his address, the Director General, SMEDAN, Alhaji Bature Umar Masari, explained that NEDEP is being implemented under three pillars namely technical, vocational skills acquisition and entrepreneurship training and access to finance, adding that the entrepreneurship training component of NEDEP is being anchored under the programme ‘One Local Government, One Product (OLOP).

    Masari recalled that the pilot project of OLOP programme was conducted in Kano and Niger States from September 2010 to July 2011 and in the course of its implementation, baseline survey and value chain analysis was carried out and business development services were delivered to approximately 50 selected enterprises that manufacture six products in both states.

    He said: “The agency has conducted sensitisation programmes, needs assessment and selected products based on competitive advantages in all the 44 government areas of the Kano state, and the products identified and soya beans and tomato which will be developed and processed in the various local governments areas for sales to the end users.”

     

  • NECA to open more regional offices

    All is now set for the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA)’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW) to open a regional office in Port Harcourt to train, expose and strengthen their businesses.

    Also, NNEW plans to open its new Chapter in the Southsouth Zone for regional capacity building programmes for members in the region.

    Speaking at an interactive session with reporters, the NNEW’s Publicity Secretary, Mrs. Edobong Akpabio, said the regional office would open up a continuous capacity building programmes to empower women on how to embrace entrepreneurship and prosper in business for thegood of the society.

    She said: “The regional office will empower women entrepreneurs in the region through establishing a network of women in business, which would support one another in managing their businesses professionally, profitably and compete globally.”

    “It would be geared towards building generations of successful women entrepreneurs and empower women to embrace entrepreneurship and prosper in business for the general good of the society as it will give a new face to entrepreneurship in the Region.”

    According to Akpabio, NNEW in the last seven years, has remained absolutely committed to assisting the development of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) believed to be the engine room for the development of any economy as the “SMEs form the bulk of business activities in a growing economy.

    “NNEW through its SMEs schemes have developed a network  that has created platform for job employment through members’ businesses, trained  Teenagers to become entrepreneurs, have a platform through its cooperative scheme to  give out loans to members to support their businesses.

    “NECA’s NNEW is a member of the task force of the CBN/ILO Financial Inclusiveness project for Women Entrepreneurs and has signed an MoU with The National Economic Reconstruction Fund, trained over 36 trainers using the ILO SIYB modules to build the managerial skills of entrepreneurs as well as trained 10 certified trainers out of which four have become certified Master Trainers,”she said.

    Akpabio stressed that SMEs being the engine for the development of any economy because they form the bulk of business activities in a growing economy, NNEW is passionate in driving this course and have several success stories .

     

     

     

  • ‘Labour issues yet to be resolved in PHCN privatisation’

    The National Union of Electricity Employees, (NUEE) has refuted claims by the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, that labour issues with the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) workers has been resolved.

    Recently, the minister said the Federal Government had resolved outstanding contentious issues with the workers.

    But the Lagos State Chairman of NUEE, Comrade Adeleke Ibrahim, maintained that the core labour issues had not been settled, noting that the minister had made similar pronouncements in March, this year.

    He said: “In March, this year, the Minister of Labour said Labour issues have been settled with PHCN workers, but we have not seen anything yet. None of our members have been settled.

    “Recntly, we saw the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo on national television saying that labour issues have been settled and severance payment will be made by the end of July.

    “We will watch and see if government will fulfill their promise at the end of this month (July),” he said.

    Ibrahim, however, admitted that the Federal Government is looking into the severance payment of PHCN workers before handing over assets to investors.

    It would be recalled that the Federal Government had disclosed that it would hand over 15 of the successfully privatised successor companies heaved off the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to their winning investors by the end of this month.

    Meanwhile, Minister of State for Power, Hajia Zainab Kuchi, had earlier hinted that labour issues have been addressed, adding that payment of severance would commence at the end of last month.

    “We are finalising on labour, the labour is what is standing between us and the handing over and all the issues that were there had been addressed. We are about to begin payment, as soon as the payments are finalised by June ending, we will definitely be handing over to the successor companies by the end of July; that is the projection we have here and that is the stance of the BPE which has a timeline which was created with the labour issues in mind.

    “We have taken over all the problems and addressed all the issues, the funding is there for the payment of labour and all we are doing is data computation and as soon as we are done with that the handing over will be done,” Kuchi said.

  • Labour to Senate: minimum wage should remain on exclusive list  

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) have raised concerns over efforts by the Senate to remove the national minimum wage law from the exclusive list to allow state governments decide how much to pay their workers.

    Currently, the national minimum wage, which is on the Exclusive List, is determined by the Federal Government and has been pegged at N18, 000.

    In separate statements, President of the NLC Abdulwahed Omar and his TUC counterpart said the removal will unnecessarily expose Nigerian workers, especially, those in the low-income bracket with grave implications for security, productivity and national well-being, as most state governments if given the latitude, will pay wages as low as one thousand Naira per month in spite of the relative enormous resources available to them.

    “This fear is justified or underscored by the reluctance or refusal of some of them to implement the N18,000 minimum wage law. Even for some of them that implemented the law, it took a heroic struggle,” he said.

    Theyu said: “the question we ask when issues of this nature arise is: do Nigerian workers and lawmakers buy from different markets? The answer is “no”. How do we send our children to school? How do we pay our rents? How do we pay our fares to work, market, church, mosque, etc or how do those who are privileged to have a car fuel it? It is wrong for politicians to attempt to toy with the destinies of Nigerian workers.

     

     

     

  • Oil workers strike: Apapa ports lose N6b

    Oil workers strike: Apapa ports lose N6b

    Stakeholders in the maritime sector are counting their losses as a result of the crippling effect of the three-day warning strike embarked upon by the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG), which ended last week.

    Aside the 100 per cent hike in fares, banks, tank farm operators and other stakeholders around the Apapa area of Lagos felt the effect of the strike. Commuters groaned as bus drivers charged N400 for Oshodi-Wharf as against N150 or N200 that is normally charged.

    Petroleum marketers and tanker drivers were the worst hit as some of them had collected money from the bank but had no product to purchase or supply within the three days.

    Activities at various tank farms in Apapa were halted due to the strike. Each of the tank farm, it was gathered, dispatches not less than 40 trucks of petroleum products daily and each of the loaded trucks costs about N4.5 million.

    This means that each tank farm lost about N180 million and there are several tank farms for different petroleum products in Apapa.

    An importer, Alhaji Saleh Saleh, said the daily loss in Apapa cannot be less than N2 billion because it is the commercial nerve centre for shipping business and petroleum supplies in the country.

    The development further increased the long queues of tankers waiting to load products and this in turn worsened the traffic situation in Apapa.

    A petroleum marketer, Mr. Olanife Adeoye, said the strike has had a disastrous effect on marketers whose money was tied down because their transactions were at the different stages of completion. He added that the banks also groaned because they could not get their commissions on transactions.

    “The strike affected everybody, including the food sellers. They brought their food to Apapa ports but there was nobody to buy it. Apart from this, the marketers that are supposed to get their products were disappointed while those who ought to get commission on transactions could not. The banks were equally affected because nobody was going there to take money, as usual,” he explained.

    NUPENG last Monday started a three-day warning strike to protest alleged inhuman treatment of its members by the management of Chevron, Agip and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).

  • ‘8.5m youths to enter active labour force by 2015’

    NO fewer than 8.5 million Nigerians are expected to emerge as new entrants into the active labour force by 2015, figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) have revealed.

    NBS said the active labour force, which ranges from persons of 15 to 64 years, is the age group of able bodied persons available for paid employment in the country.

    Constitutionally, only persons who have attained 18 years are allowed to seek employment in the country.

    In a statement, the NBS explained that the inclusion of persons, aged 15 was deliberate, especially in view of the need to capture the reality of population growth and to adequately advise the government on the trend.

    According to the projections made in the General Household Survey Report (1999-2011), 92,384,738 out of an estimated Nigerian population of 164,385,56 in 2011 were economically active. This was in contrast to 89,520,095 million who were economically viable in 2010.

    The statistics further showed that while 1,505,997 million Nigerians were newly employed in 2010, the figure doubled in 2011, reaching 2,127,691 in 2011.But the figure of the unemployed indicated that 13,946,515million people were unemployed in 2010, whereas, in 2011, it rose to 16,074,205.

    Those who were employed, the data showed, were 51,224,115 in 2010, but it reduced slightly in the following year (2011) with 51,181,884.

  • IRS Airlines owes 9 months’ salaries

    IRS Airlines, one of the domestic airlines operating in the country, is alleged to owe its workers nine months salaries.

    According to a source, the airline has been having problems with its finances, a development that has affected its ability to pay workers.

    Already, workers, through the aviation unions, are gearing up for a showdown with the airline management as they are demanding that the company pay the accumulated salaries and improve their working conditions.

    The unions have accused the airline management of violating safety laws of the aviation industry.

    Led by the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE), the workers vowed to protect their interest by disrupting the airline’s activities if the management failed to act fast.

    A worker, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lamented that the situation had become critical, warning that if nothing was done, flight safety, which the Federal Government had been preaching since Dana crash of last year, could be impaired.

    NAAPE President, Comrade Isaac Balami, who said he was aware of the situation at IRS, said the union would reach out to the management of the airline to resolve the matter.

    In his response to the crisis, the Managing Director of IRS Airlines, Mr Yemi Dada, agreed that there were outstanding salaries that needed to be cleared. He said the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) was aware of the issues, adding that his firm had been holding meetings with NCAA officials on how offset the debt.

    “I am not saying we are not owing. I am saying that we have various levels of outstanding staff salaries and that NCAA is aware of this. We are meeting these responsibilities at various levels. There are some debts that are below N50,000 and there are some that are less than N100,000 which we are taking care of. There are others with huge salaries, the cockpit crew and engineers and we have agreed to resolve them,” he said.