The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • NECA-NSITF workplace project takes off

    Some major employers/industries in Lagos have received ambulances and other safety equipment to assist their injured employees, courtesy of the NECA-NSITF Safe Workplace Intervention Project.

    Managing Director, Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund, Alhaji Munir Abubakar, make this known at the Follow-up Interactive Enlightenment on ECA 2010 organised by the NSITF and Unite Consult Limited, in Lagos.

    Abubakar said: “We will touch the whole country,” adding that employers should comply with the Employees Compensation Act (ECA).

    He said the Fund was working with some social security outfits abroad, such as Zambia, learn from them, adding that employers should contribute their quota to the success of the scheme by paying for their employees to the Fund.

    Abubakar said that was the only way they could support the Fund, and ensure its success.

    Besides, he said only proper documentation would afford employees the opportunity to benefit from the ECS when there is a problem.

    So far, he said the fund has received 412 applications for claims without proper documentation while “NSITF has received 4,507 as notice of accidents or deaths”.

    Briefing the unions on delays in claims processing,  Abubakar  said: “Failure to complete relevant ECS forms or failure to include required attachments, ignorance of the manner of accidents/diseases covered by the act, among others, are some of the challenges affecting delay in claims”.

    In case of injury, he said: “Compensations for disabilities arising from injuries/diseases suffered in the course of work, a sum equal to 90 per cent of the injured employee’s total remuneration payable monthly”.

    The director also affirmed that NSITF is committed to reducing incidence removing sufferings, anxiety, insecurity and material deprivation of the often less privileged employees.

    “NSITF is committed to quality service that is guided by the principle of accountability, transparency and integrity”, he added.

    Abubakar , who also complained that many employers do not pay well, stressed noted: “Parts of the plan of the scheme, is the accreditation of hospitals and clinics all over the country that will be used for the treatment of injured persons under scheme, committee working on the opening of rehabilitation centres/vocational training centres in compliance with the provisions of the act”.

    He disclosed that as at August 31, over 1,000 employers have registered in the scheme.

  • ASCSN seeks special allowance for education officers

    The unit chairmen of the 104 Unity Schools and the six zonal coordinators rose from a meeting in Abuja with a 10-point communiqué seeking progress in the service of education officers and other staff of the schools across the country.

    In the communiqué signed by their union leaders, the National President and General Secretary of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN), Comrades Bobboi Bala Kaigama and Alade Bashir Lawal, the meeting endorsed the memorandum submitted to the National Public Service Negotiating Council I (NPSNC I), by the union leadership, requesting the Federal Government to approve 15 per cent of the consolidated salary as special allowance to Education Officers teaching in the Unity Colleges.

    Also, the demand contained in the memorandum for the restoration and upward review of Science Teachers Allowance and the Boarding House Master/Mistress Allowance inadvertently omitted from the salaries of affected teachers since 2007 during the transition from the manual payment system to Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and which have not been restored since then despite series of demands by the Association. We enjoin the National Leadership of the Union to pursue the demands until they are implemented.

    The meeting also commended the leadership of the association for presenting another memorandum in respect of payment of end-of-year incentives approved by the Federal Government for civil servants.

    “We support the position of the association that the payment should be extended to all civil servants at the headquarters of the ministries as well as outstation staff and that the disbursement of the incentives should be based on grade levels to ensure fairness, equity, and justice.”

    The civil servants called on the Federal Ministry of Education to convey and thereafter institutionalise a quarterly meeting as agreed with the Union more than two years ago.

    “It is surprising that the quarterly meeting has not been summoned by the Management of the Federal Ministry of Education despite constant reminders by the leadership of the association.The essence of the platform is to ensure that latent labour issues capable of truncating industrial peace in the Ministry including the Unity Schools are identified and amicably resolved in line with contemporary trade union best practice.”

    The officers reiterated their demand that officers who have duly sat for promotion examinations and passed should be paid their promotion arrears and properly placed in their appropriate grade levels to boost their morale. They said it was demoralising for officers to be made to undergo rigorous promotion examination, and be denied their promotion after they excelled in the exercise. “This practice is unacceptable and should be discontinued,” they said

    The communiqué further said that the meeting frowned at the increasing cases of victimisation of officials of the Association by some Principals in some of the Unity Schools.

    (1)”These officials are indiscriminately transferred to other places using framed up charges. It noted that the action of these Principals is against the existing agreement between the Association and the Management of Federal Ministry of Education on the need to allow units officials exhaust their tenure in their schools where they are serving before being posted to other schools. This agreement is in line with ILO Convention 87 and 98 on rights to organise and collective bargaining. The meeting called on the Federal Ministry of Education to reverse these punitive postings in the interest of industrial peace and harmony in the Unity Colleges.”

    On the purported withdrawal of some members of the association, to join the Nigeria Union of Teachers, the meeting said, as senior federal civil servants employed by the Federal Civil Service Commission, the Unity School teachers are “bonafide members” of ASCSN, which has always stood by them in times of their trials and tribulations including saving their jobs when it waged a relentless battle against the Federal Government which had concluded plans to sell the Unity Schools to private individuals.

    “We, therefore, disassociate ourselves entirely from any individual or group which purport to claim that Unity Schools teaching staff are members of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT). The NUT which is the umbrella body of primary and secondary schools teachers employed by the state governments is advised to steer clear of Unity Colleges henceforth in the interest of industrial peace in the schools and concentrate on improving the welfare of its members, the abysmal failure of which has led to the exit of secondary schools teachers from its fold to form the Academic Staff Union of Secondary Schools (ASUSS).

    “Only recently, the Basic Education Teachers also pulled out of the NUT and formed Basic Education Staff Association of Nigeria (BESAN). Both the ASUSS and BESAN have publicly stated that the NUT has patently proved incapable of promoting the welfare of its members which was why they had no option but to withdraw their membership,” the communiqué stated.

  • Imo workers decry four years of non-promotion

    The Chairman of the Joint Public Service Negotiation Council in Imo, Mr Coleman Okwara, has decried the failure of the state government to promote its workers in the past four years.

    Okwara, who lamented the situation in a statement, said the government’s inaction did not make room for good worker/government relationship.

    He noted that the workers in the state were last promoted in 2008, adding that denying them promotion after working hard for the state amounted to insensitivity.

    “Promotion is supposed to be an annual event, but sometimes the government places embargo on it. This does not favour the workers. Workers deserve to be promoted,” he said.

    He said the council had approached the state government many times on the matter but nothing had been done.

    Okwara also expressed the workers’ displeasure with the government’s inability to fulfil other agreements it reached with them four months ago.

    He, however, advised the workers to be calm but said they would not hesitate to embark on industrial action if nothing was done by the end of the month.

    In his reaction, the state’s Commissioner for Information, Mr Chinedu Offor, explained that the government had lifted the ban on promotion but that promotion had a process which must be followed.

    He recalled that Governor Rochas Okorocha’s administration had never toyed with the welfare of the workers.

    He said the governor was able to clear the backlog of two month’s salary arrears owed the workers when he assumed office.

    He said the governor paid 10 months backlog of pension to retirees, increased workers’ minimum wage and approved dressing allowance for them.

    Offor urged the workers to be patient with the government as it was doing everything to meet their demands.

     

  • Lagos NUJ tasks media owners on medical checks

    •Mourns photo journalist

     

    Owners of media houses in the country have been urged to carry out routine medical checks on practising journalists in their employment

    The Lagos State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), which made the call in Ikeja, also asked media owners to institute insurance policies for workers under their employment.

    This call is coming on the heels of reported cases of sudden deaths of practising journalists in the country, especially in Lagos.

    A few weeks ago, the Entertainment Editor of Vanguard Newspapers, Mr Amadi Ogbonna, died. This was followed by that on Sunday of a Sport Photo journalist with the same media organisation, Mr Sylva Eleanya, who reportedly slumped and died   in his Isolo, Lagos residence.

    In a condolence message to the management of Vanguard Newspapers by the Council and signed by its Chairman, Comrade Deji Elumoye and Secretary, Comrade Sylva Okereke, the Council said it was disheartening to note that within two months, the Council had lost two of its members from the Vanguard Media to the cold hand of death.

    It, however, described the late Sylva as a hard working journalist who put in his best in the profession.

    According to the statement, Eleanya apart from being an active member of the NUJ at the chapel level where he was the Vice-Chairman, was also  a sport journalist, who had excelled in the coverage of the World Cup , Olympics and the Commonwealth Games for Vanguard Newspapers for over two decades

    The statement, however, noted with displeasure that journalists do not have time to go for medical check ups to ascertain their state of health, describing such negligence as very unfortunate.

    Noting the rising waves of sudden deaths of journalists in the country, the statement, therefore, urged media houses, to start as a matter of urgency, the immediate medical checks for journalists under their employment.

    According to Lagos NUJ, “The high death rate in media houses in the country is very disturbing and calls for urgent action to stem the tide. In the last few weeks, we have witnessed death of two of our members in  sudden circumstances.

    ‘’We, therefore, call for immediate medical checks on our members. All the media houses should also institute insurance policies for practicing journalists in the country. They can also buy into the Insurance scheme of the Nigeria Union of Journalists.’’

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Pay N18,000 minimum wage, Ebonyi told

    The Ebonyi chapter of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has called on Governor Martin Elechi to implement the N18,000 minimum wage for workers in the state.

    The government and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in the state have differed on the implementation of the wage.

    The government insisted that since no worker in its workforce earns below N18, 000, it had implemented the minimum wage.

    However, the NLC believed the increase should be reflected in all grades of the state workforce.

    Mr David Okoro, the CDHR Chairman in Ebonyi, told The Nation that the governor should be labour-friendly by resolving all lingering issues involved in the payment.

    “The governor should compromise if necessary and ensure that the legal provision of the wage is implemented.This has become imperative because the labour force is the engine room of government which needs adequate motivation for enhanced productivity,” he said.

    Okoro also advocated a review of the procedures of appointment in the state civil service and ensure that merit is enshrined into the process.

    “The appointment of judges, state director of public prosecution, auditor general, accountant general, and permanent secretaries, should be on merit of seniority lists. A situation where junior officers are elevated above their seniors, have created room for injustice and denial of rights, privileges and fundamental human rights of workers.’’

     

     

     

     

  • ‘No fund to payN1.44b teachers outstanding allowances’

    The Federal Government has no funds to pay teachers’ N1.44billion outstanding allowances owed them for the 2011 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) training programme.

    The Minister of State for Education, Chief Nyesom Wike, stated this in Abuja at a meeting between the leadership of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and National Teachers Institute (NTI).

    He said the meeting was part of efforts to resolve the dispute between the two groups.

    NTI in 2011 trained 125,000 teachers under the 2011 Federal Government MDGs teachers’ training.

    The NUT leadership accused the institute of paying each trainee only N2,500 as stipend for fare and accommodation for the six-day training instead of the approved N14,000 per participant.

    The National President of NUT, Mr Michael Olukoya, had accused NTI of shortchanging the teachers of about N11,500 each, which was the balance of the N14, 000 per teacher.

    However, Wike said he had written to the Ministry of Finance for the balance.

    “The reply I got indicated that Federal Ministry of Finance has no fund now to pay the outstanding balance.

    “I just want to make it clear that the funds were not withheld by NTI as teachers have alleged, but I advised NTI not to repeat similar mistake by getting involved in a programme without adequate cash-backing,” he said.

    Wike appealed to the teachers for understanding and urged them to participate in this year’s programme. He said efforts would be made to pay the debt.

    The minister also said he had also written to President Goodluck Jonathan on the issue as directed by the Ministry of Finance because last year’s budget had been mopped up.

    He noted that budgeting had been one of the problems in Nigeria due to the slow release of funds.

    “I want to assure all teachers that this year, training will be based on the available resources,” the minister said.

    Olukoya said unless the arrears were paid, teachers would boycott this year’s training.

    He said the mandate of the NUT National Executive Council was clear that the N11,500 balance owed each teacher must be paid for teachers to participate in the programme.

     

  • Pensioners want Pension Taskforce dissolved

    • Protest non-payment of arrears

     

    The Joint Committee of Associations of Federal Pensioners has called for the dissolution of the Pension Task Force, saying it has created more problems for pensioners.

    The body is also seeking the creation of a civilian pensions board.

    The older citizens held a peaceful demonstration recently to protest the non-payment of their pension arrears.

    They staged the protest outside the Office of the Head of Service at the Federal Secretariat. The pensioners blocked major roads leading to the secretariat; this resulted in traffic gridlock in the area.

    The Public Relations Officer of the Pension Reform Task Team, Mr Hassan Salihu, however, said the pensioners did not contact them before embarking on the protest.

    He said pensioners’arrears were being paid in batches after vetting of their claims by the task team.

    He said all genuine pensioners would be paid as the Federal Government had adequate funds to pay them, but the pensioners said the demonstration would not stop until the Federal Government meet their demands.

    The Chairman of the committee, Mr James Bassey, said some pensioners had been short-changed in the payment of their gratuities.

    “Due to wrong calculations of their terminal benefits, using wrong grade levels and steps, some pensioners have yet to be placed on the monthly payroll for their pension allowances since leaving the service,’’ he said.

    Bassey quoted the Director-General of Budget Office of the Federation as saying that funds had not been released to cover the payment of increment in the allowances of pensioners.

    President Goodluck Jonathan in 2010 approved the upward review of allowances of pensioners by 53.4 per cent.

    But Bassey said money for payment of arrears to pensioners had not been released because they are waiting to clear ghost pensioners from the pension payroll.

    “We were told severally that the civil service is trying to sort out the ghost workers in the service; it is not enough reason for the delay in paying salaries and the Jonathan Award,’’ he said.

    Bassey stressed the need for the government to sanitise pension management and administration, adding that it would enhance the welfare and well-being of pensioners in the country.

    He called for the dissolution of the Pension Task Force, saying it had accumulated more problems for the pensioners instead of solving them.

    “We request for the dissolution of this pension task force while immediate consideration is given for the creation of a civilian pensions board.’’

    Also speaking, Mr Ehada Mohammed, who represented the General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), Mr Actor Zal, said the pensioners were only trying to ensure that their problem was addressed.

    He also said: “We believe that what we are doing is the right thing and this is the only way to address the issue so that we can recover our money fast after all the delay.’’

     

  • DG wants NIMASA removed from Civil Service

    The Director-General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) Mr Patrick Akpobolokemi, has urged the National Assembly to remove the agency from the Civil Service.

    He made the call while receiving members of the Senate Committee on Marine Transport, who were on an oversight visit to the agency in Lagos.

    The DG spoke on the extent to which he had implemented the 2012 budget of the agency, saying that removing the agency from the civil service “will help NIMASA carry out its work faster’’.

    The NIMASA boss told the senators that only seven per cent of the capital expenditures of 2012 budget had been expended. He said this was caused by bureaucracy in government.

    “Because we have to follow due process, it takes time for one file to move from one table to the other. So, it took time for the government to approve the contractors who would carry out the projects,’’he said.

    Akpobolokemi said the agency had made significant progress in the fight against pirates and oil thieves, stressing that many arrests had been made.

    He, however, said the agency had yet to see anyone being prosecuted.

    “It was sad to note that the synergy that ought to have existed between government agencies and NIMASA was weak.

    “You find out that when an arrest is made, few days later, the pirates and sea robbers are released, and they come back and recruit more people,” he said.

    Akpobolokemi urged the committee to help to ensure that those caught should be prosecuted no matter how highly placed as it would serve as deterrent to others.

    He told the senators that the agency had recruited more staff to overcome the manpower challenges facing it.

    “The Nigerian Seafarers Development Programme (NSDP) is very much on course and several youths have been sent out of the country for training,” he said.

    The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Zynab Kure, said they were in Lagos to carry out oversight function on the agency.

    “This is not the first time we are having a meeting with the agency, all in the effort to move it forward.

    He told the director-general to furnish the committee with the number of people recruited, adding: “There is still room for improvement in the implementation of the agency’s budget”.

  • Parents to protest seven-month teachers’ strike in Plateau

    Parents to protest seven-month teachers’ strike in Plateau

    Parents in Plateau State are set to hit the streets over the non-resolution of the seven-month-old strike embarked upon by teachers in the state over government’s inability to pay the new minimum wage of N18,000.

    The teachers under the aegis of Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Plateau State Council, embarked on strike in March, this year to demand the implementation of the N18,000 minimum wage.

    Speaking on the strike, Chairman, Plateau State Chapter of the Parent Teachers’Association, Mr Sylvester Yakubu, said that many parents had been forced to enrol their children into private schools.

    Yakubu said parents would soon take to the streets to force government to take steps to end the strike.

    The PTA chair pointed out that the future of the children was “on the brink of collapse’’, particularly those in the last years of primary school and those seeking to enrol in public schools.

    “Schools have resumed but nobody knows the fate of those in primary six since they did not write the common entrance examinations because of the strike. As parents, we will not fold our hands and continue to wait until the two warring parties decide to call a truce while the future of our children is in jeopardy,” he said.

    Yakubu faulted suggestions that there was no need for primary six pupils to worry over admission to JSS 1 as there were plans to give them automatic admission.

    “If not for the decay in our educational system, how can you place a child, who did not sit for any promotion examination and have been at home for seven months, into JSS 1. How can such pupil perform effectively if placed into JSS 1?,” he asked.

    However, Plateau State Commissioner for Education, Mr Nanle Dashen, said that primary six pupils were already being admitted into JSS 1.

    Dashen explained that with the nine-year basic education system, primary six pupils did not need to write common entrance examination before they could be admitted into JSS 1.

    He added that the transition from primary six to JSS1 was automatic as it was a continuation of the nine-year basic education system being handled by the Universal Basic Education Board.

    “With the present system, it is compulsory for the child to transits up to JSS 3.

    “As he transits, all his shortfalls are noted by the teacher who will remedy them by way of curricular adjustment,“ he said.

    The commissioner, however, expressed optimism that the issues would be resolved soon.

    “The state government has already set up an 11-man elders’ committee to resolve the issues. The committee is already discussing with all stakeholders and we shall agree on the grey areas,” he said.

    Chairman, Plateau State Chapter of the Nigeria Union of Teachers, Mr Gunshin Yarlings, however, disagreed with the commissioner as he vowed that primary school pupils would remain at home until teachers’ grievances were addressed.

    “We are not asking for anything new; we only want to be paid the N18,000 minimum wage like any other worker in Nigeria. That is not too much to ask for,” he said.

    Some of the schools have been taken over by weeds while many parents have enrolled their children in private schools.

  • Minimum wage:Labour threatens governors

    Minimum wage:Labour threatens governors

    GOVERNORS who are yet to implement the new national minimum wage of N18,000 may soon face the wrath of Labour.

    In an interview with The Nation, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Deputy President Comrade Promise Adewusi, said it is engaging non-compliant states silently to make them see reason. But if they still refuse to implement, he warned, the Congress would take them up on it.

    He faulted the seeming refusal of some governors to implement the new national minimum wage, two years after the National Minimum Wage Act came into being.

    Lamenting the non-implementation, he said: “It is unfortunate that we can still be talking about the implementation of a mere N18,000 minimum wage almost two years after it became law. It shows the kalo kalo mentality of some of those who claim to govern us, when they spend more than five times  that amount to feed their dogs monthly. They claim that the states are not equally endowed. But when it comes to the payment of governors’ or legislators’ salaries or the craze for acquiring private jets, there is no disparity.

    “We have been engaging such states quietly to make them see reason unfortunately, the public will not see that now. It is only when there is a shut down that people will blame labour. Rather than face the purpose for which they claim they were elected, some of these unpatriotic governors are busy campaigning for transferring minimum wage issues from the exclusive to the concurrent legislative list to allow them the warped discretion of paying N3,000 as minimum wage and return the worker to second slavery. They neglect the fact that in all countries that have ratified the ILO Convention, it applies nationally and across board as a wage below which no worker can be expected to live a decent life under the ILO decent work agenda.”

    Adewusi also urged the ruling class to put in place a mechanism that could equitably redistribute the nation’s commonwealth, towards bridging the gap between the rich and the poor. He said governance ought to be about the welfare and well-being of the governed.

    “But in our own circumstance, it has become a programme for the emasculation of the governed (to which workers belong) by the governing class to massage the greed of this insensitive ruling class. It is the insatiable greed of the ruling class that continues to widen the gulf between the political class and the workers, including other ordinary Nigerians. Rather than put in place mechanism that can more equitably redistribute our commonwealth, the political class prefer to impoverish and enslave the people. The only way to halt this tragedy, hold the political class accountable and make life more meaningful for the toiling masses is to make Chapter two of our constitution, the ‘fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy’ justice-able and therefore enforceable. This can be achieved by simply deleting section 6 (6) (c) of the 1999 constitution as amended, particularly now they claim to be amending the constitution.

    “By the time the politicians know that they will be paying through the nose for not abiding by the tenets of that chapter, they will sit up. Otherwise, holding the ruling class accountable will remain an illusion to be pursued, but may never be attained. Chapter two of our constitution has eloquently made the provision of such facilities the cardinal purpose of governance. But because this constitution is not of the people and like the devil, what this military-induced constitution has given with the right hand in chapter two, it takes away with the left hand through section 6 (6) (c). So delete that evil section and make chapter two justice-able, improve the independence of the judiciary and things will begin to fall in place. In the on going attempt to amend the 1999 constitution yet again without going through making a fresh constitution, the least that will be expected is the subjection of any legislative intervention to a national referendum to give it a semblance of legitimacy and validity deriving from the people.”

    He faulted the government on continued job loss in the country, blaming government policy.

    He said the claim that workers’ excessive strikes scare foreign investors was false.

    He cited the textile industry as an example, noting that it has the potential of employing thousands of Nigerians, but could not because of government’s policy.

    “Government gives a bail out loan to operators of the industry and almost simultaneously removes all restrictions on the importation of foreign textiles. And because of weak infrastructural base which can not support global competition, it becomes unprofitable for operators of the industry to manufacture locally.

    “They, therefore, resort to the more profitable channel of the importation of finished textile products, turning their factories into warehouses requiring not more than a handful of low level workers. Check it out, you will not see any manufacturer who relocated out of Nigeria giving strikes as excuse for the decision.”

    Adewusi even said the so called incessant strikes “were not manufactured by workers but forced on workers by insensitive corporate and political governance. And that strikes scare foreign investors is a fallacy, these foreign investors are coming from backgrounds where trade unions freedom and democracy are entrenched. The real scare off for foreign investors, are issues of insecurity, collapsing or collapsed infrastructure, lack of electricity, policy inconsistency and somersault in the polity.”