The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • Union launches website

    Private Telecommunication and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria  (PTECSSAN)  has inaugurated a website to bridge communication gap between the union and its members.

    At the inauguration, its President, Oladapo  Sunday Moses , said workers in the sector are scattered within and outside the nation, handling projects aimed at making communication easier for Nigerians.

    “We felt the need to make reaching us a lot easier. We launch the website to bridge communication gap between PTECSSAN and its members (existing and new). Majority of companies in our jurisdiction are multi-nationals,” he said.

    The world, according to him, has become a global village where one can reach any person anywhere at the same time, adding that for the first time in the history of Nigeria, they have a registered trade union in the private telecommunications’ and communication’s sector.

    He said: “Forty-eight hours after the launch of the website, we have had over 20,000 mention on Twitter, site traffic, which can be monitored even right on the site, and it showed tremendous visit from Europe, America, Asia and others. We have more inquiries now than before even from places and companies we never knew existed in our sector.

    “The site is not close or peculiar to our targeted audience only, in few days, researchers looking into the history and origin of labour and workers’ right will have our website as a valuable tool for a good result. Our team of experts are looking into the history of the civil service union right from the 1900, the world over and Nigeria in particular. Also, the website will be a good link as our news page will beam live and updated news around the world and in Nigeria.

    “Virtually all news feeds will be accessible via our channel. When we say news we mean serious news about important and necessary happenings.“

    Secretary-General of Nigeria Union of Railway Workers (NUR),  Comrade Segun Esan urged all unions to patronise the telecommunications’ union on ICT issues in other to  champion the affairs of labour movement.

    National President of United Labour Congress, (ULC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, commended PTECSSAN  for the achievement The General Secretary of PTECSSAN, Comrade Abdullahi Okonu  said the reasons behind the website  is  to project the image of the union to the world and to reach out to its current members and the prospective ones.

  • Support bailout to states, civil servants tell National Assembly

    Support bailout to states, civil servants tell National Assembly

    The Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has enjoined the National Assembly to support the Federal Government’s effort to settle arrears of salaries and pensions owed workers and pensioners through the release of bailout funds to states.

    In a release in Lagos, ASCSN President Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, and the Secretary-General, Comrade Alade Bashir Lawal, said information reaching the union secretariat  indicated that the lawmakers were hatching plots to scuttle the Federal Government’s efforts to settle the arrears of salaries and retirement benefits owed millions of workers and pensioners.

    “We wish to emphasise that money being given to state governments by the Federal Government, under the bailout arrangement, is to be repaid.

    “Thus, while we appreciate the oversight functions of the National Assembly in budget spending and other financial transactions of the Federal Government, we believe that in terms of bailout to state governments, members of the National Assembly should use the instrument of their high offices to ensure that state governors deploy these funds to settle arrears of salaries of workers and retirement benefits of pensioners, who in the first instance, are members of their constituencies,” the Union added.

    According to the ASCSN, if the National Assembly continued to harp on hindering the government from giving bailout funds to states to settle arrears of salaries and pensions, the impression would be created that they were opposed to the welfare of members of their constituencies, whose interest they were elected to pursue.

    It, therefore, urged the National Assembly to drop the idea of querying the legality of the bailout funds, and join hands with the government, the Trade Union movement, and other well-meaning Nigerians to ensure that arrears of salaries and pensions were paid to affected workers and pensioners in order to put the embarrassing and ugly situation behind us.

  • Ex-Nitel/Mtel workers to govt: pay 20 years pension buy-out

    Former workers of Nigerian Telecommunication Limited (NITEL) and its subsidiary, Mobile Telecommunication Limited (Mtel), have appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) and the office of the Accountant General to pay the balance of 20 years pension buy-out and other entitlements owed them.

    Under the auspices of the Association of Former Telecoms Employees of Nigeria (ATEN), they said the payment of severance entitlements to staff members was supposed to be regulated and governed by extant rules and regulations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), but the BPE relied on the executive fiat of the Obasanjo administration to pay only five years pension buy-out instead of the 25 years buy-out award by the ILO.

    They said the delay in payment as awarded by the liquidation court has forced ATEN to approach the ECOWAS Court of Justice in suit number ECW/CCJ/APP/32/17 for an order of mandamus against the Federal Government and its concerned agencies.

    Speaking on behalf of the workers, ATEN President, Pastor Oluti Gabriel, said: “When the liquidation court was constituted and. inaugurated in 2013, the Incorporated Trustees of Association of Former Telecoms Employees of Nigeria (ATEN) entered the court through the legal representation and secured judgment as Secured/Preferential creditors.

    “The resultant claim for the affected 17,639 former workers totalling N290 billion (Balance of 20 years pension buy-out, 10 per cent entitlement of the sales of non-core assets, insurance) having long been submitted/re-submitted to the government since 2014 for payments.”

    Oluti further disclosed that the parole arrangements by the Minister of Finance through the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD),  an arrangement that was erroneously ventilated by the acclaimed existence of pensioners prior to liquidation, to place the former workers of Nitel/Mtel on life pension is totally unacceptable to ATEN as it completely negates and violates the liquidation court judgment, which awarded 25 years pension buy-out, as severance payments to all of them both pensioners and disengaged.

  • Surulere Council workers hold forum

    Surulere Council workers hold forum

    The National Union of Local Government Workers (NULGE) in Surelere, Lagos State, has held its quarterly forum. The event coincided with the birthday of the council Chairman, Hon Tajudeen Yussuf Ajide, who attended the event.

    The workers praised the chairman for the progress recorded so far in the council, especially for his welfarist policies. They listed them as: approval of financial assistance to workers; renovation and furnishing of offices; equipping the clinic; provision of a staff bus and making the premises clean, among others.

    Ajide thanked the workers for the honour done him by celebrating with him. He promised to meet the workers’ demands and make their welfare paramount. He urged revenue officers to discharge their duties without fear or favour, and promised to employ more street sweepers and address drivers and guards shortage.

  • PENGASSAN decries delayed passage of PIB

    PENGASSAN decries delayed passage of PIB

    Nigeria has lost much revenue and new investments due to the delay in the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), oil workers, under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have said.

    Speaking with The Nation,  PENGASSAN President Comrade Francis Olabode Johnson said the union would continue to collaborate with others to ensure that adverse labour clauses in the Bill are addressed before its passage.

    Olabode called on stakeholders, especially the government, to take co-ordinated steps to resolve some of the problems bedeviling the oil and gas industry.

    According to him, some of the issues that need urgent attention include  attacks on national assets, rehabilitation of refineries and other government-owned oil installations, anti-labour posture and practices of indigenous companies and marginal field operators, contract and casual staffing, infrastructural decay, national industrial relations crisis, among others.

    “We condemn the continuous attacks on national assets such as pipelines and other oil and gas installations in the  country, which has caused lots of incalculable damage to the national and industry’s revenue, demanding strong security strategies and use of modern equipment to end unnecessary crisis. He implored the Federal Government to, as a matter of urgency and priority, carry out a comprehensive Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) in all the four state-owned refineries.

    Olabode  frowned at the anti-union posture of indigenous oil and gas companies and marginal field operators, and called on regulatory institutions and business partners (Ministry of Petroleum Resources Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), NAPIMS, International Oil Companies (IOCs), and Ministry of Labour and Employment to call such companies to order.

    He called on the government to urgently re-convene the Ministerial committee on contract and casual staffing, which was chaired by the Late Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Barrister James Ocholi, to address all issues on abuse of service contract provisions in the oil and gas industry.

    In a related event, PENGASSAN has called for united labour  to engage owing governors

    Johnson, who chided the governors for refusing to pay salaries of their workers despite the bail out received from the Federal Government, called on the  Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) to lead the struggle in making  the governors pay their workers.

    He said though his union (PENGASSAN) operates in a very critical sector of the economic and the society, he assured that the union would use every power it has to support the TUC and the NLC in whatever step they take in fighting the battle.

  • Unpaid salary: Labour hails Buhari’s knocks for governors

    Unpaid salary: Labour hails Buhari’s knocks for governors

    Organised Labour has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for condemning governors who are still owing their workers despite several bailouts.

    At separate events, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and National Union of Textile Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigerian (NUTGTWN) said the President had shown a rare value by telling governors the truth on how he felt about their failure to pay salaries and pensions, despite the Federal Government’s interventions.

    The TUC also floored some governors for asking for the release of 50 per cent of the Paris Club loan refund, even when they could not account for the tranches released to them.

    The union lamented the plight of workers in the states and the need for urgent attention as many could barely survive.

    “For us, President Muhammadu Buhari was right when he expressed surprise on how some governors manage to sleep soundly when workers have not been paid their salaries for months. The president even wondered how the workers feed their families; pay their rents and the school fees of their children,”the TUC said.

    TUC President Bobboi Bala Kaigama said the Congress believed that the President asked these vital questions because he still has his conscience intact, noting that most of the nation’s political leaders have sold their conscience.

    “They don’t feel our pains neither do their children and cronies. What is N18,000 (Eighteen thousand naira) when juxtaposed with the prevailing economic realities in the country? It is a pity our governors prefer statues of foreigners to our health, children’s education, job creation and other meaningful activities that help build a strong society.

    “We believe in the President, but he alone cannot do it. Efforts to fight corruption have become a mirage. Experts have argued that one way recession can be addressed is when the wage of workers is increased; unfortunately the last wage increase we had was in 2011. Though due for review, but some forces who take delight in using our children as political thugs have refused. They want the status-quo (master-servant relationship) to remain.  They tell us that the economy is in recession yet it does not affect them,” he said.

    Kaigama urged the Federal Government to hold on to the money until the workers and pensioners were fully paid.

    “The governors are stock-piling the released fund somewhere waiting for 2019 election campaign, but we are going to surprise them. It is not going to be business as usual,” he said.

    NUTGTWN General Secretary Issa Aremu said it was laughable that the governors could have the effrontery to approach the President for another bailout when all they have received in the past were not used for the purpose they were meant for.

    The labour leaders, speaking at the 29th Annual National Education Conference of NUTGTWN in Sokoto, said Nigeria’s case has become a one-day one-trouble-affair.

    “Only two weeks ago, some ministers made a case for “No Work No Pay” doctrine. Their argument was that they want to check the public service workers in the country. Just imagine, how do you tell a worker that has not been paid for six months to continue to borrow to fare himself or herself to job? How do you explain it that a country that is broke still pays twitter lawmakers over N29 million on a monthly basis. This is inhuman, wicked, derogatory and devilish,” he said.

    Aremu, who is also the vice president of the Industrial Global, said the government should endeavour to pay workers all they had worked for before trying to enforce the no work, no pay doctrine.

    He maintained that the governors should be seen supporting the Federal Government in reviving the economy and this could be done by paying workers their wages.

    “The workers are the consumers, if they are not paid where would they get the money to buy finished products from our industries. It is only when our factories thrive that the economy can rebound. The workers are the ones that support the artisans and other sectors of the economy. The importance of a living wage, paid as at when due, cannot be over emphasised,”he said.

  • Poor budgetary allocation affects Nigeria’s technological development, says union

    The National Association of Academic Technologists (NAAT) has expressed displeasure over low budgetary allocation to the education sector, which has consistently fallen below the UNESCO benchmark of 26 per cent.

    The union blamed low allocation to the sector for the failure of any Nigerian university being ranked among the first 500 in the world.

    The union, in a communiqué at the end of its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, therefore, urged the federal and state governments to give priority to budgetary allocation to the education sector.

    In the communiqué by NAAT General Secretary, Comrade Hamilton Iyoyo, the union said across the world, countries are budgeting hugely to improve their technological sector, stressing that Nigeria cannot afford to be left behind.

    The union’s NEC also urged the government to honour and implement agreements reached with unions to forestall unquantifiable losses in man-hours, negative impact on the economy, and other losses occasioned by incessant strike actions.

  • Labour Ministry partners NISCN on occupational safety

    The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige has expressed his ministry’s readiness to continue to partner with the National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria (NISCN) to ensure and promote occupational safety and health of Nigerian workers in their workplaces.

    Ngige spoke when he received on courtesy visit the newly elected executives of the National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria led by its president, Mr Cletus Akhigbe.

    He explained that the partnership will focus on ensuring that Nigerian workers are safe in their workplaces.

    “I want to assure you that the Ministry of Labour and Employment will give you the needed moral and technical support to deliver on the mandate of the council’’, he added.

    Congratulating the newly elected executives, Ngige tasked the council to be guided by the principles of international best practice by imbibing the spirit of tripartism as enshrined in the constitution of the Council

    He also advised the council to review its constitution and avoid ambiguities and misinterpretation that could be exploited to derail the founding objectives of the council.

    “We will also throw you a challenge about your constitution, to look into areas of ambiguities and amend them, because this was part of the problem we had in the past as certain people tried to translate the constitution in a way to benefit themselves although it did not materialise” Ngige counseled.

    In his remarks, Comrade Cletus Akhigbe the National President of the National Industrial Safety Council of Nigeria, stated that the council requires the support of the ministry in order for it to deliver on its mandate of safeguarding the occupational safety, health and welfare excellence in Nigeria.

    “The new executive is fully aware of the fact that we may not achieve good success if we do not work with the ministry, we assure you of our resolve to fully work with the ministry to achieve occupational safety, health and welfare excellence in Nigeria.” The President said.

  • Senate to CEOs: ‘honour our invitation or we arrest you’

    The National Assembly (NA) has reiterated its stand to  arrest any Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who fails repeatedly to honour summons by its committee, describing the act as an affront on the National Assembly.

    Chairman, Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions, Samuel Anyanwu, reiterated this position in a chat with newsmen on the sideline of the just-concluded retreat of the National Assembly Committees on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions in Lagos.

    Senator Anyanwu said:“I advise that each time you are invited, you come, if not the legislators can frustrate you.

    “If you are invited a couple of times and you do not appear, it is an affront on the committee; we will issue a warrant of arrest, it is in our Constitution in Sections 88 and 89. The Senate and the House of Representatives have every power to summon anybody in this country to give evidence in a matter they are handling.

    “For instance, if the CEO of an organisation is being invited, all the members of the Assembly are present. We are not there for nothing. We have sworn an oath to protect all manner of people,”he said.

    Commenting on the incessant invitations, Senator Anyanwu said: “What if it was a court case; would they not have been going to court multiple times before a judge? I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

    Recently, the Nigeria Employers Consultative Assembly (NECA) called on the legislative arm of government to restrain its committees from what it described as “brazen attack on enterprise right” until the Supreme Court determined the case brought before it which sought clarification on the scope and extent of the constitutionality of investigatory authority/powers of the lawmakers in Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution.

    In a press conference by NECA in Lagos, its Director-General, Mr. Olusegun Oshinowo, said there had been an unhealthy increase in the incidence of unwarranted investigations by the National Assembly, particularly the House of Representatives, through countless various committees and ad-hoc committees into any aspect of the private sector’s operation that catches their fancy.

    Oshinowo said NECA has already dragged the House of Representatives to court over frequent summoning of companies’ CEOs.

    According to him, their actions  have undermined business sustainability and growth.

  • ASSIBIFI seeks insurance for articulated vehicles

    Workers in banks and  insurance companies have urged law enforcers to demand insurance documents for articulated vehicles as a strategy to develop the industry and ensure healthy trucks are on the roads.

    The workers made the call under the aegis of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSIBIFI).

    ASSIBIFI President Mrs Oyinkan Olasanoye spoke in Lagos on the failure of truck owners to insure their vehicles.

    Olasanoye was reacting to a report that the insurance industry might have abandoned a huge business segment worth an estimated annual revenue of N30 billion.

    According to her, unless enforcement agents arrest tanker and trailer drivers, who fail to provide insurance papers, truck owners would not insure their vehicles.

    She said insurance companies would want to insure articulated haulage vehicles, but were hindered by many factors.

    “Some of the owners do not give complete information on the state of their vehicles. The state of the roads is bad, which leads to frequent accidents,’’ she said.

    According to the unionists, no insurance company will insure a vehicle when the indemnity is higher than the amount paid as premium.

    “Property in Nigeria is inadequately insured and it is a key problem,’’ the ASSIBIFI president said.

    She said governments should ensure the enforcement of laws on vehicle operations for standards.

    “If a tanker or truck driver is arrested for not having an insurance document, he will have no choice but give the right information to insure that vehicle,’’ she said.

    The union leader urged insurance companies to partner haulage drivers to repair some roads that could cause havoc as part of their social responsibilities.

    Some stakeholders had identified challenges to insuring articulated haulage vehicles to include poor state of the vehicles, poor state of roads and lack of adherence to standard operational safety measures by truck operators.

    Data from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) showed that about 62 road accidents, involving 65 tankers, were recorded in the first quarter of 2017 with several lives and about N3.2 billion lost to the accidents.