The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Minimum wage: Kwara NLC seeks fresh negotiation with govt

    The Kwara State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is asking for fresh negotiation with the state government on the implementation of N18,000 national minimum wage.

    The state NLC Chairman, Alhaji Faruq Akanbi, told The Nation that the state government had not entered into dialogue with the Joint Negotiation Council since its inauguration in December 2011.

    He appealed to the state government to review downward the Pay As You Earn (PAYE) tax by civil servants in the state.

    The chairman assured workers in the state parastatal agencies that the delay being experienced in the payment of their salaries would soon be over.

    Akanbi called for regular payment of emolument of pensioners in the state to further alleviate their sufferings.

    He disclosed that the government had implemented the promotion of teachers and local government workers, who were due for elevation.

    Akanbi said that the payment for the promoted workers would begin this month.

     

  • Institute’s workers protest non-payment of allowances

    Institute’s workers protest non-payment of allowances

    WORKERS of the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T) in Ibadan have protested the non-payment of their allowances.

    The workers were made up of representatives drawn from the institute’s chapters of ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities and Non-Academic Staff Union.

    Other members were drawn from the Senior Staff Association of Universities, Teaching Hospitals, Research Institutions and Associated Institutions as well as the National Association of Academic Technologists.

    The Chairperson of IAR&T chapter of ASUU, Dr Olufunmilayo Ande, said the workers were protesting against the non-payment of the approved hazard allowance arrears and the refusal of the institute’s management to pay the transfer allowances of those that were recently moved as well as entitlements of those newly appointed.

    Ande said the funds were over N177.5 million.

    “We do not have students here as the bulk of our work is research, but most of those who work here are teaching staff of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, the institute’s administrative supervisory agency.

    “It is very saddening that since 2009, there has been no meaningful research work carried out here, especially since June 11, 2012 when workers here have been on strike.

    “The strike is centred on the non-payment of arrears of our hazard allowances to the tune of N177, 571, 609.50 approved by the council of the university on December 13, 2010,” Ande said.

    She said the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria (ARCN) and OAU had set up separate investigation panels on the issue since September and October 2012.

    The union leader said the reports were, however,still pending.

    But Prof. Bamitale Omole, the Vice Chancellor of OAU said the management was working on the matter and the issues would be addressed soon.

    According to him, the protest is understandable as the institute had been rocked by industrial crisis for some months.

    The vice chancellor, however, said that this had not affected productivity.

    “We are aware of the staff grievances and this was why three separate panels were set up by the supervisory agencies of IAR&T to look into the matter.

    “The panels set up by OAU, ARCN and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development are yet to come out with their findings which is the stage we are in.

    “When these reports are released, another committee would be set up to come out with an integrated white paper report which would be open to all.

    “We will implement whatever the report says but until then we can do nothing.

    “The staff themselves can always testify to my fairness in relating with them,” Omole said.

  • Govt creates 3,000 jobs for youths, others in Katsina

    About 3,000 jobs have been created for youths, women, disabled among others, under the Federal Government’s Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P) in Katsina State.

    The state Programme Coordinator, Alhaji Garba Kurfi, told The Nation that 30 per cent of the jobs were reserved for women, 20 per cent for persons living with disabilities, while the others were reserved for males.

    He said youths would be engaged in jobs, such as road rehabilitation, teaching in primary schools, as well as home management for women.

    According to the coordinator, every local government is expected to select three communities for such projects. He added that the beneficiaries should be between 18 and 35 years.

    Kurfi said the programme was aimed at creating employment opportunities for the teeming unemployed youths in the country.

    He added that it would also prevent youths from indulging in societal vices, such as armed robbery and prostitution, among others.

    The coordinator urged local government authorities to register qualified persons irrespective of their political party affiliations.

  • Ex-NLC boss makes case for pensioners

    A former Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) chairman in Kwara State, Mr Emmanuel Aiyeoribe, has appealed to the Federal Government to pay attention to the plight of pensioners in the country.

    Aiyeoribe, who was reacting to the recent nationwide picketing of NIPOST offices, said the government must give priority to the welfare of pensioners in the three tiers of government.

    “It is regrettable and worrisome that our senior citizens are treated as if they did not contribute to the economy of the country while in active service. For the pensioners to picket all NIPOST offices nationwide shows that they had been pushed to the wall,’’ he said.

    He added: “The Federal Government should as a matter of urgency in 2013 find a permanent solution to the plight of pensioners at the federal, state and local government levels.’’

    “Pensioners of the three tiers of government face the same plight as evident in the demonstrations witnessed in states and local government areas of the country,’’ he said.

    He appealed to the government to give priority to workers’ welfare this year, saying this would boost productivity

     

  • Teachers lament non-payment of Dec. salary in Enugu

    Primary school teachers in Enugu State have appealed to the state government to pay their December 2012 salaries to enable them settle their children’s school fees.

    The teachers accused the government of not giving priority to their welfare to enable them to contribute their quota to the educational advancement of the state.

    One of the teachers, who did not want his name in print, expressed dismay with the government, saying that their families had dry Christmas and New Year celebrations.

    “We celebrated this season almost without food on our table. I could not provide my family with the needed things because I so much relied on my December salary, but to my surprise, we were not paid.

    “I could not even borrow because it was already late and I so much expected this salary to come. It was horrible for my family during the celebrations,” he said.

    Another teacher ,who also preferred anonymity, called on the government to pay the salaries and entitlements to enable them to settle their children’s school fees.

    According to him, schools will resume soon and their children need to resume along with their mates.

    “It is very unfair that one will work and not get paid, especially in this season.

    “We celebrated Christmas and New Year from hand to mouth and now that the celebration is over, the government should endeavour to pay us our money so that we can pay our children’s school fees,” the teacher said.

    A volunteer teacher in a rural community said the government had yet to pay him and his colleagues since their recruitment in 2011.

    When contacted, the Chairman of the Nigerian Union of Teachers in the state, Mr Chumaife Nze, confirmed the non-payment of salaries and entitlements to the members.

    “I contacted the permanent secretary of the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board before Christmas, but he said the salaries and leave allowances have been released but till date, no teacher has received a bank alert on the payment.

    “I do not understand what is happening. Even volunteer teachers have not received any salary since they were recruited in 2011,” Nze said.

     

     

     

  • NLC seeks end to youth unemployment

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is seeking ways out of the growing rate of unemployment, which it put at 60 per cent of employable youths.

    Its President, Abdul Waheed Omar, who spoke with The Nation, said unemployment is Nigeria’s greatest problem.

    He said: “In particular, the crisis of unemployment continues to be the greatest of these. Official statistics puts the unemployment rate at above 24 per cent. As alarming as this would seem, it actually disguises the enormity of the unemployment problem given the huge pool of disguised unemployment and underemployment.

    “The incidence of unemployment among the youth is even more alarming. Though official figures indicate over 40 per cent of them as unemployed, the reality is that about 60 per cent of youths remain unemployed. On average, graduates of the nation’s universities and polytechnics continue to remain unemployed four years after discharge from the mandatory NYSC scheme.

    Other categories of less qualified youths have been roaming the streets in millions without gainful employment. Thus, resigning to a life of perpetual destitution and despondency in a country blessed with so much resources and potential.’’

    Omar traced causes of unemployment to include corruption in the high places. This, according to him, include the fuel subsidy scam through which many influential Nigerians had siphoned much money that could have been used in creating jobs.

    He, therefore, called for the probe and trial of fuel subsidy fraudsters, saying that is the only condition for peace in the industrial sector in the new year.

    It also said the Labour subsidy strike led to the unveiling of many fraudulent subsidy transactions.

    “The government will be unfair to the Nigerians if it fails to expeditiously prosecute those who have stolen so much, and caused so much trauma and death to the people. We hold the view that no one is above the law in any decent society and if our government is committed to the enthronement of good governance and a corrupt-free society, it must get the named beneficiaries of the oil subsidy scam to not only refund all the money they have stolen, but also serve appropriate jail terms. This will be the only acceptable condition for continuous industrial harmony by workers and the Nigerians.”

    The NLC chief said the economy, in 2012, was characterised by many maladies, with dire consequences for workers and other Nigerians.

    It faulted the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth that has not led to job creation.

    “This abysmal economic outlook is prevailing in the face of official aggregate of the economy touted to experience respectable growth. The growth rate of GDP is flaunted to average about 6.5 per cent based on data for the first three quarters of the year. While this is lower than the corresponding rate for 2011, it is way above the global growth rates for comparable national economies.

    “However, our concern about this respectable economic growth is that it does not translate into industrial development and better life for the Nigerian people. The economy continues to experience incessant factory closures, and with no visible industrial policy, has led to continuous informalisation of work and de-industrialisation, unemployment has continued unabated, and hyper-inflationary pressure, which has been most severe in the food, energy and transport sub sectors have impoverished majority of Nigerians.”

     

  • Fed Govt tasked on telcoms operators

    THE National Union of Postal and Telecommunication Employees (NUPTE) has urged the Federal Government to prevail on private operators to respect labour laws.

    National President of the union, Comrade Sunday Alhassan in a telephone conversation with The Nation lamented that the workers in the private sector operate in an un-dignified environment, which is below international standard.

    He, therefore, charged the supervising ministries – Labour and Communication Technology – to regulate the operators to avoid confrontation with the union.

    He said workers should be alowed to do he called “ decent work” .

    He said the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has set decent work for all as the goal for its work; while the four pillars of decent work include, employment opportunities, workers rights,social protection and representations.

    “Workers in the private sector especially in majority of Nigeria’s private telecoms and courier companies are suffering from the absence of any mechanism for the guarantee or protection of workers’ rights of organising and representation.

    “This is mainly because of the nature or mode of employment in the private telecoms sector, which is characterised by outsourcing, casualisation, time specific employment etc,” he said.

    He said though most of these private firms in Nigeria comply with the labour laws in their home countries and as a result allow workers to organise and unionise in their parent companies, the situation was different here in Nigeria.

    According to him, “Here in Nigeria,these companies deliberately breach our labour laws as they operate with impunity with clear anti labour policies that are neither practiced nor tolerated in their home countries.

    “As a result of this obvious unfair labour practices,workers in the private sector in Nigeria are caught up in conditions that defile decency at work and rather work in conditions that are deficit in dignity.”

     

  • A year of strikes

    In the Labour circle, 2012 started with a strike and ended with it, reports DUPE OLAOYE-OSINKOLU

    For the Labour movement, 2012 was turbulent. It was full of activism. Picketing, mass rallies, protests, strikes were the order of the day.

    The year opened with struggles. Labour resisted some government’s policies – winning some, losing others.

    Its first struggle was the resistance against fuel price increase. The Federal Government had announced an increase in Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from N65 to N141 per litre on January 1. This incurred Labour’s wrath. The disagreement between Labour and the government over the issue snowballed into a week-long strike and protest that paralysed economic activities in the country.

    The strike, due to the parties’ inability to reach an agreement on the fuel subsidy removal, started on Monday, January 9. It was co-ordinated by the Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO). Its enforcement was with mass action in workplaces, markets, schools, neighbourhoods and major link roads.

    The Lagos rally took off at the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Secretariat and moved to Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, which became a temporary home to many people. Some brought their mats, pillows, kerosene stoves to the venue.

    There was no boring moment throughout the strike, as musicians stationed a giant generator to supply power to the venue, where people took turns to entertain free.

    Labour wanted a reversal of PMS price from the announced N141to N65 per litre, but the government refused.

    When the crowd kept on increasin, singing anti-government songs, and protesting daily from 7am till 6pm, the Federal Government , at the end of the first week, deployed soldiers to the streets of Lagos and Abuja, to prevent the movement of the people.

    The issue was, however, resolved when President Goodluck Jonathan met with the two labour unions before announcing a new price of N97 per litre. A lot of dust was raised by the reduction because Labour claimed it was unilaterally done by the government, while its civil society allies alleged dishonesty, saying the mandate of N65 was not adhered to.

    The reduction was counted as a plus for Labour. Having achieved a partial victory in the struggle, Labour rolled out conditions that the Federal Government needed to meet, to end the rot in the oil sector.

    This later led to the Farouk Lawan Adhoc Committee that started, according to many, on a good note.

    Even Labour commended and encouraged the Committee. Then, the unexpected happened. The assumed righteous Committee Chairman was indicted by an oil magnate, Femi Otedola, for alleging collecting a bribe of $620,000. In the face of the crisis, Labour held on to its position in the report already submitted by the Adhoc Committee on Oil Subsidy. It called for its implementation, saying those found guilty must be brought to book. But the report saw the light of day.

    Now that the court has stopped the Federal Government from implementing the Farouk Committee Report, Labour may, expectedly, dust it.

    The National Minimum Wage is another issue that took centre stage this year. Many state governments battled to maintain peace in their domain as workers kept threatening to down tools should the government fail to meet their ultimatums. Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Borno, Ekiti, Edo, Plateau state workers, among others, protested the non-implementation of the new national minimum wage.

    Some of the state governments wriggled out of the crisis, but Plateau was not that lucky. The strike embarked upon by the state workers is still ongoing. The bone of contention? Plateau Government did not want to implement the wage in full.

    Labour and the state government later settled for 55 per cent of the minimum wage, but the workers rejected the insistence by the government that it would only pay for the period the workers were at work.

    Governor Jonah Jang then claimed that he was relying on a United Nations resolution that no worker should be paid for the period he deliberately stayed out of office. The labour leaders, however, argued that the law could not be applied in Nigeria since it has not been domesticated in the nation’s statute books.

    The Labour Minister intervened on December 20. His intervention has led to the suspension of the strike, on the condition that the Plateau Government pay the striking local government workers their salaries from June 2012 with 55 per cent implementation.

    The National Minimum Wage Act stipulates that the least paid worker should receive N18000. Some governors said it would be easier for them to implement only if the Federal Government increased the monthly revenue allocation accruing to their states.

    Only few states have implemented the Wage Act to the letter. Labour has spent one year, struggling with such state governments.

    In Abia, the Governor sacked non-indigenes in the civil service, saying that was the only way for the state to pay the new wage. Indigenes who married “outsiders” were affected.

    Local government workers are arguing that the joint account system being operated by state and local government is delaying the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage to council employees.

    President of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) Ibrahim Khaleel said deductions for the joint accounts have affected the councils as they cannot meet their financial obligations.

    He argued that if the statutory allocations to local government areas got into the councils’coffers, the councils would not have remained in the current situation where they could not implement the payment of the national minimum wage.

    While Labour struggles for implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage, many workers kissed their jobs goodbye due to no fault of theirs. Employers in many of the sectors of the economy reduced staff strength due to economic imbalance.

    Workers in the manufacturing, textile and banking sectors were part of the job losses. In the banking sector alone, about 1.7 million jobs were lost in the period under review.

    In the private sector, stakeholders tried to proffer solution. President of the National Union of Chemical Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), Comrade Boniface Isok, said some policies of the government affected some industries in the chemical sector.

    He explained that the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to bank debtors to pay up was part of the reasons for factory closures and redundancy of workers.

    As Labour grappled with increasing job casualties, it was roused by a bill sponsored by Senator Heineken Lokpobori (PDP, Bayelsa West) meant to amend the Labour law to make it mandatory for unions to vote before embarking on strike. There was uproar.

    Trade unions said the bill was aimed at muzzling them.

    Senator Ayogu Eze, while supporting the bill, said it was meant to ensure that the unions did not mix labour dispute with politics. The bill died as there was opposition against it.

    Beside, in the second quarter of the year, Imo State workers protested the creation of a fourth tier of government, which empowered traditional rulers to pay civil servants in their domain. The workers alleged that the governor imposed the tier on them. The state House of Assembly okayed the bill for the establishment of the fourth tier of government in the state.

    In the health sector, Lagos State Government effected a mass sack of doctors in the second quarter of the year. The action generated a lot of controversy, as the government tried to evict the affected doctors from their official quarters.

    The state has explained that it sacked 788 doctors in its employ because they failed to respond to queries issued to them for embarking on “an illegal strike’’.

    About 316 doctors of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) and 472 of the other hospitals were affected by the government action.

    The state government earlier queried them for embarking on a three-day warning strike from April 11 to April 13.

    Federal health workers also engaged the Federal Government over promotion of health professionals from CONHESS 14 to 15 and implementation of the Presidential Committee Report on harmony in the health sector.

    In the outgoing year, there was was a pension scam. Public servants enriched themselves at the expense of retired workers. The Senate has vowed to get the culprits. Some public servants are, however, being tried in courts of law. Even in the last quarter of the year, more discoveries were made.

    The Chairman of Pension Reform Task Team (PRTT), Abdulrasheed Maina, was fingered in a N195 billion pension fraud. He, however, did not honour the Senate’s invitation to defend himself.

    The Joint Committee on Establishment, Public Service and Local Government Administration was mandated by the Senate to investigate pension administration from 1999.

    The Senate President, David Mark, also directed the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, to compel Mr Maina to appear before the Joint committee.

    Maina, however, disagreed with the lawmakers over pilfered funds meant for the payment of pensions to retirees.

    He denied the allegations, saying that the legislators had connived with his detractors who were uncomfortable with the reforms.

    Workers are wary of the contributory pension scheme. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is allaying their fear that the scam was perpetrated in the old pension system, which had been in existence before the Pension Act 2004.

  • Ministry workers protest salaries’delay

    Ministry workers protest salaries’delay

    Workers of the Ministry of Science and Technology have protested poor welfare and non-payment of salaries to the newly employed junior workers in Abuja.

    Making their demand, Mr Shehu Yahaya, the chapter’s Chairman of the Nigeria Civil Service Union, said the way the management handled staff welfare was not encouraging.

    Yahaya said one of the grievances of the workers was that the ministry failed to carry the workers along while taking decisions about their welfare.

    “We are not saying the welfare must be sharing of money all the time, but there are many ways to tackle the welfare issues.

    “We have been agitating that whenever the issue of welfare will be discussed, we should be carried along, but such thing is not happening here.

    “The ministry must carry us along when deciding on our welfare,” Yahaya said.

    The union also protested the non-payment of about 105 junior workers, recruited and trained by the ministry.

    One of the junior staff members in Technical Department, who pleaded anonymity, told reporters that the ministry had stopped paying his salary since January.

    “I wrote an application letter and the ministry offered me an appointment.

    “I was paid for six months last year, but when the ministry employed another batch of junior workers, the payment was stopped in January.

    “The excuse was that no waiver was given for the appointment. I don’t know anything about waiver; my own is that I sought for job and I was given an appointment letter.

    The officer also complained that on October 10, the Human Resources Department introduced a verification exercise, where the new employees’ original appointment letters were collected from them.

    “We were pleading that they should return our appointment letters, but they refused and we heard that the waiver they were talking about is already out for 120 people,” he added.

    Some of the workers complained that they had been living on borrowing while two of their colleagues had died due to the lack of fund to take care of themselves.

    The Minister of Science and Technology, Prof. Ita Ewa, who addressed the protesters, linked the poor welfare to low budgetary allocation to the ministry.

    “When you look at the budget frame you discover that the ministry has a limit in its operation and because of that you will bear with us as we drive the system,’’ Ewa said.

    He promised that whatever was given to the ministry would be released to run the ministry.

    Also speaking, Mrs Rabi Jimeta, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, said the workers were aware that the junior ones were employed without waiver.

    Jimeta said the ministry had taken necessary steps to correct the wrongs and assist the people involved.

    “My clear directive on that is that anybody that had been previously employed with the coming of this waiver should be retained.

    “But it is on the condition that he has got the pre-requisite qualifications for that post he is occupying.

    “The qualifications are clearly stated in the scheme of service. If you have those qualifications you don’t have problem, but if you don’t have those qualifications, there is no way we can assist,” Jimeta said.

     

     

     

  • Ekiti orders ‘operation show your documents’ to workers

    Ekiti orders ‘operation show your documents’ to workers

    THE Ekiti Government has directed 2,783 local government workers to produce documents to authenticate their appointments into the service.

    In a circular the Permanent Secretary, Local Government Service Commission, Mr David Jejelowo, said 1, 511 of the affected workers were found to have been illegally appointed while 593 and 357 were listed as redundant and  promoted beyond their statutory levels.

    The state government had already deployed council workers who had the National Certificates of Education (NCE) and Bachelors of Education to the State Universal Basic Education and Teaching Service Commission.

    It was gathered that some workers in the health departments of councils were re-deployed to the new Ekiti State Primary Health Development Agency.

    The circular also stated that 320 of the workers had been marked to have overstayed in service.

    It stated that such workers had been directed to produce their letters of first appointments, birth certificates, original copies of certificates and their personal files.

    But reacting to the development, the Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Workers, Mr Victor Adebayo, described the government’s action as surprising.

    He, however, said the union would not watch and allow the government to sack workers unjustly.

    “Declaring some people as illegal employees in the local government sector without carrying NULGE along is surprising because we don’t know the documents the government is relying upon to do all these restructuring.

    “We agreed that we should be carried along in the restructuring, but the government decided to do it all alone and this, to us, does not conform to due process,” he said.

    Adebayo appealed to the government to stay action on the matter to douse tension, promising that the union would reach out to its national headquarters on the next line of action.

    Also speaking, the state Commissioner for Information, Funminiyi Afuye, clarified that the government was not planning to sack council workers.

    He urged local government workers and members of the public to ignore the sack rumour being peddled in some quarters.

    Afuye said the state government would continue to respect the agreement reached with the council workers which led to the suspension of the strike declared by the workers last month.

    He explained that what the government did after the strike was to right-size by posting some workers to areas where they would function optimally.