The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Labour expresses concern over insecurity

    The  Organised  Labour has said the refusal of the government to rejig the nation’s security and remove erring heads in the face of their failure to stem killings  is causing some concern.

    Workers under the umbrella of the United Labour Congress (ULC) said they were worried that despite all promises by the government to stem killings in the Northeast and Northcentral, the incident has continued.

    ULC President, Joe Ajaero,  speaking at the end of the Central Working Committee (CWC) of the Centre in Lagos, lamented that the number of Nigerians who suffer untimely and gruesome death keeps growing     while government watches helplessly.

    “It has become frightening to Nigerian workers and masses at the lack of premium which politicians and leaders place on the lives of an average Nigerian,” he said.

    Ajaero said workers do not think that their lives matter and as many continue to fall victims of the nefarious activities of the militants, politicians turn blind eyes.

    He said: “Our worry became alarming when we observed that the institutions that ought to take charge of this threat to our nation seem not to have any answer  to the killings.

    “We had thought that this would have been one of the measures that would resolve the security crisis.”

    The labour leader emphasised that any government or leadership that fails to protect the lives and properties of its citizenry is a failed government.

    “We have to be alive to enjoy whatsoever other benefits or achievements the government may have claimed to have attained during its tenure,” he said.

    Ajaero added: “We therefore call on government to demonstrate that the lives of workers and masses matter by arresting some of the self-confessed killers that still walk on our streets. The murderous Fulani-herdsmen as represented by Miyetti – Allah must be arrested and its leadership prosecuted.”

     

  • TUC urges Fed Govt on affordable housing for workers

    The President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, has berated the Federal Government for not taking workers’ income into consideration in the housing projects being implemented across the nation.

    Kaigama said previous efforts to build houses for workers had remained white elephant projects because they did not plan for the workers by knowing their salary strengths.

    He said: “When you are building houses and you do not know your offtakers’ status, your effort will be in vain. What we have currently is a case of building for the upper class.”

    He spoke in Abuja at a stakeholders’ forum to announce a partnership between workers of the Voice of Nigeria (VON) and Value Chain Consults.

    The partnership is for Value Chain Consults to construct houses for VON workers.

    Kaigama said the project would cover two states in each geopolitical zone, with special ones in Abuja and Lagos in the first phase. He noted that the project which had the backing of President Muhammadu Buhari was an important incentive to make workers more productive, prevent corruption, as well as check insecurity.

    He praised Value Chain Consults for carrying out detailed housing affordability survey for the civil servants, which would eliminate the problem of unoccupied houses due to the inability of workers to pay, and also commended them for taking the pain to pre-qualify the workers before embarking on the construction of the houses.

    Kaigama wondered why international banks gave loans at single digit, while Nigerian banks charged as high as 25 percent interest from loans.

    VON Director General (DG)  Osita Okechukwu assured the workers that the project would be carefully executed for their benefit and that 20 hectares had been allocated at Lugbe for the first phase.

    “I want to assure you that when the planning stage is completed within the next two weeks, we will commence construction of the houses and Mr. President will commission them,” he said.

    He said VON staff would be accommodated the arrangement, starting with staff residing in Abuja.

     

  • Collaboration key to skills development,says ITF chief

    The Director-General, Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Sir Joseph Ari, has said local and international collaboration is critical to accomplishing the goals of the agency.

    According to him, the Fund has established training linkages with external agencies, such as the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the N-Power Knowledge, Niger Delta University (NDU), National Institute for Mining and Geosciences and Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN).

    He said the current management of the agency would return the organisation to the path of growth, saying that, in the last two years, the agency has trained over 60,000 from 2,300 organisations and over 50,000 youths.

    Other vulnerable groups were also equipped with skills for employability and entrepreneurship through programmes, such as the National Industrial Skills Development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programme (WOSEP), Training on Wheels and the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP), among other initiatives.

    Ari said about 150,000 Nigerians had benefited from ITF training programmes since the assumption of the current management.

    He said: “ITF has implemented numerous technical skills acquisition programmes as well as introduced new initiatives including the National Industrial Skills development Programme (NISDP), the Women Skills Empowerment Programne (WOSEP) and the Skills Development Programme for Youths in Construction Trade (CONSEP) among several others.

    “The NISDP, our flagship technical vocational skills acquisition programme, which was run twice in 2016, has trained about 30,000 youths drawn from the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) between late 2016 to date.”

    Ari said the agency has collaborated with organisations both locally and internationally for training and technical assistance.

    According to him, the fund established training linkages with external agencies like United Nation’s Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR), the N-Power Knowledge, Niger Delta University (NDU), National Institute for Mining and Geosciences and Cement Technology Institute of Nigeria (CTIN) amongst others.

    On the Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme (SIWES), he said: “The Students Industrial Work Experience Scheme is a brain child of the ITF. It was initiated to provide students of engineering, technical and allied disciplines, with practical experience of the real work situations they were likely to find on graduation.

    “The ITF disbursed a total of N1.6billion as students and supervisory allowances to 328 tertiary institutions.

    “As part of efforts to improve the scheme, the ITF stepped up engagements with the supervising agencies and other stakeholders to address some of the problems bedeviling the scheme.

    “To this end, it convened the 13th SIWES Biennial Conference and the SIWES stakeholders meeting. All the events took place in Abuja and attracted the participation of all the regulatory agencies, the Federal Ministries of Education; Industry, Trade and Investment; Labour and Productivity and employers of labour.

     

     

  • Fed Govt inaugurates team on job creation

    The Federal Government has inaugurated a multi-sectoral task team on the implementation of the public-private roundtable on youth employment and skills development.

    The team has the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, as chairman, representative of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Office of the Vice President, as alternate chairperson, and a representative of the private sector as co-chairperson.

    While inaugurating the 20-man team, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Prof. Stephen Ocheni, said the Federal Government was poised to reverse the ugly trend of youth unemployment through the involvement of stakeholders in a round table on youth employment and skills development in partnership with the African Development Bank Group (AfDB).

    Prof. Ocheni said, “The task team is saddled with the responsibility to convene a private sector round table engagement as an exchange platform towards the identification and financing of eight priority projects for accelerated youth employment and skills development. Further expectations are that the work of the team would key into the aspirations of the Economic Recovery Growth Plan (ERPG) of the present administration and also boost the rate of attainment of the relevant Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the country.”

    He decried the country’s inability to translate youth innovations into gainful employment opportunities, wealth creation and sustainable development.

  • ‘Over 23,000 workers to lose jobs over ban on codeine’

    The National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE) has warned that over 23,000 workers would lose their jobs due to the blanket ban on codeine by the Federal Government.

    Specifically, the union said many big pharmaceutical companies would be forced to close shop, and this could cause over 23,000 workers to lose their jobs.

    NUCFRLANMPE lamented that the number of workers that would be affected would be colossal as many companies manufacturing cough and pain-relieving drugs that use codeine as raw materials may have to shut down.

    Instead of the blanket ban, the union advised the government to find a way of controlling the use of codeine, as done in the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom.

    NUCFRLANMPE President  Comrade Babatunde Olatunji said: “Codeine is an analgesic with uses similar to those of morphine, but it is much less potent as an analgesic and has only mild sedative effects. It is also used in the treatment of cough, diarrhoea as well as other chronic conditions such as arthritis and migraine’’.

    “It is obvious that some criminality minded people are using this product as addictive substances as done all over the world, including advanced countries like US and UK, but codeine is also an important raw material in the production of pain relieving and cough suppressant drugs.”

    He called on the government to adopt a system in which prescription of the drugs will be strictly adhered to so as to prevent closure of many pharmaceutical companies in the country and the attendant job losses.

  • ‘SMEs need ease of doing business policy’

    Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) has identified small and growing businesses (SGBs) as having the potential to be global engines of shared prosperity to drive growth, promote sustainability, and support equity.

    It has, therefore, urged the government to come up with a policy on ease of doing business for the sector.

    Speakers at the just-concluded two-day ANDE West Africa regional conference in Lagos, which was supported by the DFID Impact Programme, said jobs would be created if the government intervened in the area of policy.

    Executive Director, Enterprise Development Centre (EDC) of Pan-Atlantic University and Chairman, Steering Committee, Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs ANDE West Africa, Peter Bamkole, said the Federal Government needed to enact new policies that would drive the growth of SGBs operator in the region.

    He observed SGBs are the driving force for the economy today as they contribute 50 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

    At the opening plenary titled: ‘Looking back on the West African Entrepreneurial Ecosystem and Projecting Forward’ the participants, Executive Director, EDC, Peter Bamkole, and CEO, MBC Africa, Tenemba Anna Samake noted that the West Africa entrepreneurial ecosystem is growing on a geometric level but agreed that there is still a lot of challenges as well as possibilities in the ecosystem.

     

  • NSITF rehabilitates 42 injured workers in one year

  • PENGASSAN Addax branch gets chair

    Members of the Petroleum and Natural  Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in Addax Petroleum have elected Comrade Chris Ogiemwonyi Jnr. chairman for a second term of three years.

    Ogiemwonyi Jnr. was unanimously chosen as the chair through a consensus by delegates during the branch’s fifth Triennial Delegates Conference in Lagos.

    Other members of the Branch Executive Council (BEC) include Comrades Simon Ononekwu, Gerald Agwu, Temidoyo Diabo and Ken Olubo, who are vice chairman, secretary, assistant secretary and treasurer.

    Financial Secretaryis Comrade Arodiwe Kenechukwu; Comrade Abiola Oyebola (Industrial Relations Officer); Comrade Assumpta Uzoma (Branch Women-in-PENGASSAN); and Comrade Bode Odedeyi (Internal Auditor).

    In his acceptance speech, Ogiemwonyi Jnr. urged the new BEC to be prepared for an era of discipline and commitment to serve the branch, adding that they should be prepared to work as a team in confronting the challenges ahead.

    The PENGASSAN President, Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson, called for collaborations between the management and the branch executive for attainment of organisational growth and industrial peace.

    “Hence we require openness and transparency to build trust and confidence in one another. Management should endeavour to take the union along in making business decisions that will impact on the employees’ welfare. As unionists, the BEC should also sacrifice their individual interest for the corporate interest.”

    “For the incoming leaders, the work may appear tedious and the road ahead may appear long and hard but I am sure you are amply endowed with all the key ingredients of success; and we pray that the Almighty Lord will grant them the zeal to serve for the betterment of the branch, our members, the company, the industry and the Association as a whole,” he said.

     

  • Labour to govt: pay 16 months arrears of 48,000 ex-PHCN workers

    The United Labour Congress (ULC) has urged the Federal Government to pay the severance package of 48,000 workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) disengaged four years ago.

    The union said the workers were still owed over 16 months’ arrears in agreed payments, while over 2,000 more workers have not received any severance package since then.

    The President of ULC, Joe Ajaero, who spoke during the union’s, Central Working Committee (CWC) in Lagos, said the over 2000 workers were wallowing in hunger and suffering with their family members.

    Ajaero said the union expected President Muhammadu Buhari’s government,  after three years, to critically review the privatisation of the electricity industry.

    He said the Chairman, National Council on Privatisation (NCP), Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, had not mentioned the issue since he came on board.

    According to him, the status quo has rather deepened even as the nation suffers increasing gaps in electricity supply as more households wallow in darkness.

    Ajaero called on government to review the privatisation of the electricity sector rather than extorting Nigerians through estimated billings and poor electricity supply.

    He said: “The power sector privatisation exercise has not worked and has currently become a platform for official corruption.

    “We do not understand why this government will continue the fraudulent dishing of taxpayers’ fund to private entities to which it has sold its assets.

    “While we support any programme and actions that will lead to new investments in Nigeria, thus creating jobs for the citizens, we do not support half-baked, ill-conceived and politically driven projzects that are fraught with irregularities and corruption.”

    Ajaero canvassed the immediate passage of the National Minimum Wage bill into law as soon as the committee concludes negotiation.

    He said the minimum wage negotiation had dragged on for too long and the committee should endeavour to meet up with the deadline.

    “We also hope that all relevant agencies that should implement the new wage will do so as soon as the bill is passed,” he said.

    He urged Buhari to assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill since it has already been passed.

    He further called on the government to release the certificate of the ULC so that the nation’s industrial relations clime would be inclusive and robust.

  • NECA, UNIDO support firms with certification

    The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), is to enhance business competitiveness and remove technical barriers to global trade among indigenous companies.

    This would be achieved through the establishment of NECA’s Global Certification Limited (NGCL), an indigenous certification body.

    This in line with the National Quality Infrastructure Project (NQIP) objectives, which was established four years ago by the Federal Government.

    Addressing reporters at NECA office in Lagos, its Director-General Designate, Mr Olawale Cole, said as a key stakeholder in the Organised Private Sector (OPS), NECA had supported the establishment of its Global Certification Limited (NGCL) as an indigenous certification body.

    He said: “In line with the NQIP objectives and with technical support from UNIDO, NGCL has successfully gone through the process for international accreditation. The objective of the project to support the development of missing standards, quality control bodies and encourage improvement of quality of products and services exchanged in the Nigerian markets has been achieved.”

    He said NGCL has been internationally accredited as the first indigenous certification body to provide certification and training services to firms locally and internationally.

    “The establishment of NGCL and its accreditation as a certification body by the Egyptian accreditation Council (EGAC) assures us of better access to certification of management systems, standardisation,  enhanced business competitiveness and removal of technical barriers to global trade.

    “The accreditation of NGCL  came at a time when the focus of the government is on diversification from the oil sector and the promotion of exports from other sectors. This major milestone will enhance business competitiveness, impact the quality infrastructure landscape in Nigeria and break barriers to global trade,” he said.

    He said some of the benefits of certification include continual improvement of business management systems processes, business growth through improved productivity and profitability, assurance and confidence in the quality of goods and others.

    The Chief Executive Officer, NGCL , Mrs Celine Oni said one of the good thing about the certification is that it has the backing of the international accreditation forum, which also has Egyptian Accreditation Council (EGAC)as a member.