The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Food and beverage workers begin indefinite strike

    Food and beverage workers begin indefinite strike

    Sequel to their protest last week over the refusal of their employers to review the expired bi-yearly collective agreement on salaries and fringe benefits, the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association (FOBTOB) has begun  an indefinite strike.

    A meeting was held on  December 8 between members of FOBTOB and their employers, Association of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), to reconcile.

    FOBTOB had earlier called for the upward  review of their salary by 20 per cent as against the current 14 per cent, which, according to them, is the lowest rate in the past 17 years.

    In a statement signed by FOBTOB National President Comrade Quadri Olaleye, the union said: “With the majority of our employers being multinationals such as Flour Mills of Nigeria, Guinness Nigeria Plc, A & P Pladis Foods, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Ajinomoto, Deli Foods, Dangote Industries, Nestle, Cadbury Nigeria, Dufil Prima Indomie, among others, it is unacceptable to us that they continue to discriminate against our members in the payment of salaries and fringe benefits after having met their targets and remained profitable.

    “It is on record that throughout our industry, all other cadres have in the past months enjoyed a review in their salaries and fringe benefits while the Senior Staff and Managers have been tactically abandoned.

    “To this effect, we are calling all our members nationwide to embark on a national strike action to compel the AFBTE to reach an equally acceptable agreement from December 11, 2017 as from 12am prompt.”

    Meanwhile, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has condemned outrightly AFBTE  members’ decision to deny a reasonable increment of 20 per cent in the ongoing negotiation between the employers’ body and FOBTOB members at the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC).

    The congress in a statement by its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, was worried that this long overdue increment cum benefit, which is clearly affordable within the industry and has in fact, already been awarded to the junior staff could now be allowed to degenerate into a nationwide strike at this critical festive period when products of the industry would be in higher demand.

    He said: “Increasing the wages of the junior staff to the extent that they (junior staff) now prefer not to be promoted to management level for us is a deliberate attempt to spite our members and it further speaks volume of the injustice in the system.

    “We are equally concerned about the posture of the representatives of the employers at the NJIC negotiations. It appears the NJIC was deliberately constituted to spite the senior staff. Any act to diminish the dignity of our members is unacceptable.”

  • Don advises govt on job creation through agri-preneurship

    The Federal Government has been charged to provide employment through agri-preneurship.

    The Dean, School of Agriculture, Lagos State University (LASU), Prof Kehinde Olushola Babatunde, gave the charge at a forum organised by the Industrial Training Fund (ITF), Isolo branch.

    Babatunde, who was guest speaker, said for this to be achieved, government should encourage entrepreneurship in farming by removing all the business regulations and complex bureaucratic procedures that stand in the way of agri-preneurs.

    He said: “The government and stakeholders should continue to encourage entrepreneurship in farming through providing information service to advise and support famers in identifying, preparing, designing and implementing efficient farming business.

    “Improving the provision of basic infrastructure and promoting the capacity of training institutions such as ITF and Leventis Foundation School to provide education and training at the right time and place with the right balance of technical knowledge and practical skills”.

    ITF Director-General, Sir Joseph Ari, represented by the Director Field Services Department, Mrs Adesola Taiwo, said no fewer than 11,100 unemployed Nigerians are to be trained by the Fund as part of Federal Government’s efforts towards solving the problem of unemployment.

    The training, which had already taken off in many states, would expose the trainees to over 30 trades and crafts.

  • NLC calls for upward review of pension

    NLC calls for upward review of pension

    Nigeria Labour Congress, (NLC) President Comrade Ayuba Wabba has called for an upward review of pension to help minimise the economic hardship facing pensioners.

    Wabba said this at the 16th edition of Pensioners Day Celebration in Abuja.

    He said the review of pension was long overdue, saying the federal and state governments had been adhering to the constitutional provision.

    “Section173(3) and 210(3) of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Constitution 1999 (as amended) stipulate that pension be reviewed every five years or together with any increase in workers’ wages,’’ Wabba said.

    According to him, it is criminal that the Federal Government pays N4000 as pension to some pensioners in this harsh economy.

    “If we want a better Nigeria, then we must be willing to take care of our pensioners and workers.

    “Our country is so blessed with various resources, but it is a pity that we cannot account how it is being spent,” he stated.

    Wabba praised President Muhammadu Buhari for releasing the bailout fund to states to pay pensioners and workers, urging that the government monitors and makes them accountable on how the money is spent.

    He said government needed to take care of the security and welfare of its people to avert surmount of the security challenges in the country.

    NLC president appealed to pensioners to support one another, adding that the NLC will continue to show its support and solidarity.

    The Executive Secretary of Pension Transitional Administration Directorate, Ms Sharon Ikeazor, said the payroll for pensioners for December was ready and pensioners would get their pension before Christmas.

    “We got release to pay six months pension”.

    “For police pension, we paid them one year out of the 33 months and we just have a balance for 21 months for police pensions.

    “The government is making the money available; we will pay up,” she said.

    Ikeazor said the essence of the verification was to ensure pensioners were fully captured so that there would not be a need for them to come back again.

    She promised that by the first quarter of 2018, the directorate would pay the arrears of the 33 per cent increase.

  • Ajose-Harrison is PSSDC chief

    The Lagos State Government has confirmed Mr. Senukon Olufunmi Ajose-Harrison as  Director-General of the Lagos State Public Service Staff Development Centre (PSSDC), Magodo.

    Ajose-Harrison became Acting Director-General in May, following the retirement of his predecessor, Mrs. Regina Olubunmi Fabamwo.

  • SMEDAN empowers 160 in Anambra, Kebbi

    SMEDAN empowers 160 in Anambra, Kebbi

    The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN) has begun the empowerment of 160 young business owners in Anambra and Kebbi states.

    Kicking off the exercise in Awka, the Anambra State capitalko Umaru Radda, said the empowerment has two components – enterprise management training and payment for workspaces for one year.

    According to the him, the two components are part of the solutions designed by the agency to mitigate business failures recorded by young business owners.

    He noted that the training would sharpen the business management skills of the beneficiaries which would enhance their performance while the payment for workspaces would reduce their financial burden and free some funds for daily operations.

    Urging them to make the best of the window of opportunity opened by SMEDAN, Radda, who was represented by the Southeast Zonal Coordinator of the agency, Mr. Levi Anyikwa, stressed that sustenance of the Young Business Owners in Nigeria (YBON) initiative was imperative for addressing the unemployment situation in Nigeria, which has reached a crisis level.

    The target beneficiaries of the programme are youths between 20 and 45. The goal is to create new opportunities for enterprise growth for start-ups and for employment.

    Selection criteria for beneficiaries include: technical capacities of the promoters, available raw materials, markets, available skills, access to appropriate technologies, among others. Needs assessment was conducted, which formed the basis for the design of the empowerment package.

    Furthermore, the delivery of a tailored Business Development Services (BDS) package would include mentoring, linkages to markets and sources of equipment and provision of workspace.

    For sustainability of the programme, small business advisors would be assigned to each beneficiary/group to provide critical hand-holding supports to ensure the realisation of the set goals prior to the agency’s project-exit.

  • Pensioners urge Fed Govt to reintroduce gratuity payment

    Pensioners, under the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS),  have called on the Federal Government to reintroduce the payment of gratuity to retirees      .

    The  union accused the government of   shying away from its responsibility as there’s no provision in the Pension Reforms Act that outlawed the payment of gratuity to pensioners.

    The Sector Chairman, Nigeria Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme, Comrade Sylva Nwaiwu, stated this at  its second post inaugural congress of the union in Abuja.

    He  called  for a review of their entitlements, saying the Federal Government is indebted to pensioners, who retired under the CPS. He said they will continue to fight for their gratuity within the ambit of the law.

    His words: “Gratuity is a right to any public worker who retires from service after 10 to 35 years. The introduction of the CPS was to address the burden of monthly pension liabilities on the government and not that of gratuity. Hence, there is no section of the Pension Reform Act, before and as amended by the 2014 pension reform act that explicitly removes gratuity as a legitimate right to retirees.

    Naiwu said in  the old Defined Benefit Scheme,  government pays gratuity to the retirees and thereafter continues to pay monthly pension, whereas in the CPS, government is restricted to the payment of gratuity, while the monthly pension of retirees accrues from the combined contributions by government and the workers.

    He said from the inception of the CPS, the government has tactically ignored the legitimacy of this important factor in the engagement agreement, without any legal or constitutional justification, thus short changing the CPS retirees.

  • Govt told to engagement youths

    Govt told to engagement youths

    The Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), has urged the three tiers of government  to ensure full engagement of youths in the country.

    In addition, the body stressed that it is only through meaningful involvement and inclusive policies and decision making processes of youths, that solutions to some of the key problems experienced by young people can be resolved.

    ASSBIFI’s President, M Comrade Oyinkansola Olasanoye, in a chat with The Nation said government  should engage the youth because economic engagement has become more challenging, owing to the lack of decent employment opportunities

    He said the respective roles  of young people, policy makers, and the institutions through which they work, should be clearly defined. While young people need to play a central role in addressing issues that affect them, they cannot tackle the multitude of challenges alone, particularly in the economic and employment area.”

    The ASSBIFI chief said with high youth unemployment and underemployment in many parts of the world, young people are finding it increasingly difficult to secure quality jobs that offer benefits and entitlements.

    He said employers have the advantage of being able to offer young workers contracts that provide career security, health-care benefits or pension schemes, knowing that young people with few other prospects are not in a position to bargain and are poorly aligned to organise into collective bargaining units to try and improve their situation.

    “As a consequence, many young people end up in precarious work situations, with a short-term or non-employee contract (or no contract), little or nothing in the way of pension benefits, and no health insurance or unemployment insurance.  This interferes with a young person’s ability to plan for the future and become financially secure.”

    She noted that greater attention should be given to youth engagement at all levels within the development agenda, adding that there has been increased recognition of the value of young people’s participation as it pertains to both youth and wider development, as well as formal acknowledgement of the need to actively address the many challenges facing a growing youth population, including unemployment and underemployment, poverty, inequality, political unrest, and social exclusion.

    The labour leader, however, urged the three tiers of government to initiate policies that would facilitate youth engagement through institutionalised processes, adding that countries experiencing power vacuums are particularly susceptible to the infiltration of violent groups and extremist elements as young people can often be coerced or otherwise forced out of economic necessity, for example, to join groups or organisations that espouse violence

  • Germany, Canada to collaborate with NLC on job creation initiatives

    Germany, Canada to collaborate with NLC on job creation initiatives

    The German and Canadian governments have pledged to collaborate with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on vocational training and skills acquisition.

    The Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Christopher Thornley, who stated this in Abuja, when he hosted the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, commended the congress for adopting focusing on vocational training for the youth.

    He said the trade union movement in Canada has been involved in HIV/AIDS campaign, stressing that it is common knowledge that unemployment has become like an epidemic in the country.

    He described the NLC as an important partner in the development of the country, adding that labour economy is a very important source of information for any society.

    Receiving the NLC delegation, the German Ambassador to Nigeria, Berhard Schlagheck, reiterated the German government readiness to collaborate with the NLC to ensure the development of the country and the trade union movement.

    The NLC helmsman said collaboration with Germany and Canada was necessary to curb the high level of migration through the Mediterranean by Nigerian youths seeking better sources of living.

    At the Canadian High Commission, Wabba said the congress was committed to working with development partners to explore areas of possible assistance within the context of the current economic challenges, especially in the area of unemployment and vocational training.

    Wabba noted that the congress would continue its advocacy in development, pointing out that the congress was playing a leading role on the African Continent in development.

    He said the power sector, which is critical to development, has remained a major challenge and sought Canada’s assistance to overcome the  challenges, saying since  Canada had similar challenges, the congress would want to know how it overcame i.hem

    He also canvassed the assistance of the Canadian government in advancing social justice, stressing that in a society where there is lack of social justice, inequality will prevail.

    At the German Embassy, Wabba said the congress was ready to learn from Germany how it overcame the problem of unemployment.

    He said  the congress has been working with German agencies such as the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) in developing the capacity of trade union movement in Nigeria.

  • ILO seeks fresh loan strategies for SMEs

    ILO seeks fresh loan strategies for SMEs

    Enterprises, using bank loans as significant share of their working capital, tend to have higher wages, productivity and lower unit costs. But Small and Medium E,nterprises (SMEs) according to International Labour Organisation (ILO), often, cannot obtain or afford such financing.

    To the ILO, 10 percentage point of larger proportion of bank loans in working capital is associated with 2.2 per cent higher wages, 5.9 per cent higher labour productivity and  3.9 per cent lower unit labour costs.

    ”SMEs play a crucial role in creating jobs, but often lack access to the external funding they need,” said Deborah Greenfield, ILO deputy director-general for policy

    She lamented that in many cases SMEs cannot get bank loans or only get credit at comparatively high rates, because they lack audited financial statements, repayment history and business assets for use as collateral.

    “Policymakers need to consider strategies that would help SMEs access such funds, including bank loans for their working capital, which can have strong benefits for both workers and employers,” she added.

    The ILO’s ‘World Employment and Social Outlook 2017: Sustainable Enterprises and Jobs”, released recently, showed that firms were more likely to make greater use of bank loans for working capital in countries that have stronger creditor rights protection.

    The same is true of countries that have addressed issues such as poor accountability, lack of respect for the rule of law and corruption.

    Some innovative practices have proven beneficial in allowing firms access additional capital for growth, while supporting vulnerable groups and broader social and environmental issues.

  • Labour demands dignity for workers

    Labour demands dignity for workers

    •Union condemns competence test in public schools

    Organised labour has decried what it described as the “gross violation of workers’ dignity”, through the controversial “competence test” for workers and teachers, particularly in public schools.

    Vice President of Industrial Global Union, Issa Aremu, at the 2017 national conference of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) in Kaduna, called on state governors to “dignify their respective workforce through capacity building, understanding and sympathy, as demanded by the principles of decent work by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).”

    Aremu, who is also an executive of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the General-Secretary of Textile Workers’ Union, noted that the 1999 Constitution guaranteed basic human and workers’ rights.

    He lamented that Nigerians’ constitutional right was being implemented more in the breach than compliance, citing non-payment and delayed payment of what he called, “miserable pay” by some state governors and private employers.

    He said it was unacceptable and counter-productive dramatising and criminalising workers’ skill gap when skills’ upgrading and upliftment were required.

    The labour leader observed that Section 34(1) of 1999 Constitution holds that every individual, including working men and women, is entitled to have respect for the dignity of his/her person, adding that exhibiting so-called failures of teachers or any workers during competence test violateds their rights to privacy and dignity.

    “It is debatable if any of the state governors can truly pass competence/governance tests by Nigerians, but we all appreciate their weaknesses, we even re-elect some of them, only for them to degrade the workforce through punitive examinations not necessarily capacity building for improvement and promotion,” the labour leader said.

    Aremu said Nigeria risks perpetual underdevelopment, if it refuses to treat its workforce better through training and re-training, better pay, work schedule and enforced discipline, adding that more advanced nations, that regard labour as the most valued factor of production, such as China and India, are fast developing, while Nigeria, which he alleged derides labour, lags behind.

    The labour leader praised President Muhammadu Buhari for tasking some recalcitrant governors on non-payment of salaries, adding that workers rights to living wage are human rights.

    Also commending the activities of the president of the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR), Malachy Ugwummadu, the labour leader described CDHR as “a strong African institution made of strong men and women who, at the risks of persecution by the military and civilian dictators”, stood to defend, sustain and promote fundamental human rights of all Africans as guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution, the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights.

    Aremu also called on legislators to strengthen civil society, adding that only vibrant civil society groups could check the political class.