The Nation Newspaper

Category: Labour

  • ITF, NECA train 3,000 youths on technical skills

    THREE thousand youths are being trained under the Technical Skills Development Project (TSDP) of the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), ITF Director-General Joseph Ari has said.

    The training is holding in 18 industrial centres nationwide.

    Ari said the TSDP was one of the initiatives by both organisations create jobs.

    “Its primary objective is to reduce unemployment, promote sustainable wealth creation and give the youths entrepreneurial and attitudinal proficiency through technical skills acquisition,” Ari stated.

    He said the participants would be trained in 18 trades and crafts, including electrical/electronic maintenance, mechanical machinery and maintenance.

    According to him, they would also be trained in welding, fabrication, plumbing/pipe fittings maintenance, beverage bottle operation and information and communications technology.

    Ari listed others as building construction, carpentry and joinery, agriculture and agro-allied, animal husbandry, aqua culture, breeding and hatchery, livestock and aqua culture feeds, as well as fashion designing.

    ITF and NECA, he said, expected the participating organisations to equip the trainees with competitive skills to enable them get jobs after the programme.

  • Pensioners condemn agitations for breakup

    THE Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has asked those agitating for the country’s break up to stop and join hands with the government to promote unity.

    The union appealed to Acting President Yemi Osinbajo for the payment of the outstanding 18 months of 33  per cent pension arrears following the signing of the budget.

    In a statement signed by its General Secretary, Elder Actor Zal, the union praised the Federal Government for this month’s prompt payment of pensions to pensioners.

    The statement said: “We appreciate the Federal Government for listening to the voice of the Union by acting fast to ensure that our people have a very happy sallah celebration.

    “The Union wishes to appreciate the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), especially the Executive Secretary, Mrs. Sharon Ikeazor, for her effort at ensuring that this payment scaled through.  The prayer of all pensioners will abide with her.

    “The Union thanked Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, the Registrar of Trade Unions and all government agencies involved in the monthly payments of pension.

    “The NUP joins her voice to call for the unity of Nigeria and condemns all those who are encouraging hate speeches to desist and let us build together a virile country.

    “Finally, the Union requests the Acting President to use his good offices to ensure payment of outstanding 18 months of 33 per cent pension arrears and other pension arrears now that the budget has been signed into law.”

  • DG promises to repostion NDE

    The National Directorate of Employment  (NDE)  Director-General, Dr. Nasiru Ladan, has promised to turn the agency around in line  with global best practices.

    In a statement, the Assistant Director, Information, Lawan Musa, quoted Ladan as saying that under him, the NDE would not limit itself to job creation.

    He said the Directorate would  assist Nigerians who are into small and micro businesses with cutting-edge business skills to enable them expand and generate employment.

    Diligence, it added, would be observed in skills acquisitions and resettlement, as training shall be tailored towards the peculiarities of each state and local government.

    Ladan assured workers of better days ahead. According to him, staff welfare shall be one of the objectives of his administration.

    He urged the workers to be disciplined, loyal and productive.

  • Firms are not paying workers gratuities, ASSBIFI alleges

    Many organisations are not paying workers gratuities, the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI) has alleged.

    In an interview, its President, Comrade Oyinkan Olasanoye, said: “We realised that the way management of organisations are going these days, they find a way of not paying our members at the end of their service. What belongs to workers which is the gratuity, majority of organisations are no longer paying it.

    “So, we realised that when our members are asked to go, nothing is always attached. Because of that we  realised that majority of our members would start thinking of tomorrow and delving into some untoward things. To prevent that, in order to have a succour somewhere, that is what informed the  proposal on loss of job insurance for members.”

    She continued: “We keep on advising our members on the need to allow the union to be more active in decisions and to be properly briefed on the matter. Under no reason should the management lay off somebody anyhow.”

    On the sack of workers in financial institutions, she said the law was clear on it.

    Olasanoye said under the law, when  an organisation wished to lay somebody off, the union in that worker’s  sector should be called for negotiation.

    She said: “The law didn’t say you can’t lay people off, but there  are ways of doing it. We have been  appealing to  our members that they should not wait until they are laid off.

    “The moment they heard the rumour that they were about to be laid off, they should write their management to that effect and let   briefed us on who to discuss with.

    “We will keep on appealing to our members and management of their companies and employers that the recession and the economic meltdown is one that everyone needs all hands on deck.

    ‘’We also want to appeal to them that they should let us work together because our sector is a very sensitive and with the meltdown, we can’t afford to have issues that will affect the public trust on the sector that is already corroded by various acts and policies that are not acceptable to the people. We will appeal to the management to let us discuss and go through due process,” she said.

  • NLC leadership tours affiliate unions

    NLC leadership tours affiliate unions

    •Leadership crisis rocks NUBIFIE

    The Ayuba Wabba-led Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has embarked on assessment tour of affiliate unions.

    Wabba said the  visit would boost the affiliates’confidence and assure them that they are not being left alone.

    He said: “Our movement can prosper in unity if we keep the tradition of unity. We are not unmindful of all the challenges that our workers are going through, such issues as unpaid salaries and allowances.”

    He said so far, the NLC leadership has visited the National Union of Hotels Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW), the Agriculture and Allied Employees Union of Nigeria (AAEUN), the National Union of Academic Technologists (NAAT), the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NILGE) and the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW).

    He said the union took the step when crisis was tearing the leadership of the NLC affiliates apart.

    The National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE) has been engulfed in leadership crisis with two factions emerging. While one is based in Lagos, the other is in Abuja.

    The NUBIFIE crisis might not be unconnected with the difference between the NLC and the United Labour Congress (ULC). While the National leadership operating from Lagos and led by  Comrade Danjuma Musa, was trying to pull out NUBIFIE from the NLC to join the ULC, the Abuja faction, led by Comrade Godling Litkang, said Danjuma, his treasurer and General Secretary have been suspended from the union.

    The crisis has led to the arrest and detention of Comrade Danjuma by the Police for a week in Abuja, but later released through the intervention of Wabba.

  • ‘90% of hospitality jobs casualised’

    The National Union of Hotels Personal Services Workers (NUHPSW) has raised the alarm that nine out of every 10 workers in the country’s hospitality sector are either casuals or contract staff.

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba,  expressed concern over unfair labour practices in the sector, adding that most hotels and hospitality service providers have denied their members the right to unionise.

    He decried the massive loss of jobs in the sector, adding that NLC will intervene and ensure that workers’ rights were not abused. He said: “Employers are becoming more aggressive due to the economic challenges. We are going through a lot of bad times with our employers.”

    Wabba said outsourcing and privatisation were evils adopted by employers to exploit their workers. He called for more proactive measures to stem the practice.

    He said when jobs were outsourced, sometimes the wages are so ridiculous and far below the national minimum wage, adding that the union had written to the Ministry of Labour and Employment, complaining about the precarious working conditions in some hotels and have concluded plans to picket some of the defaulting hotels.

    He urged the Federal Government to involve the union in its diversification policy.

    He said: “Our movement can prosper in unity if we keep the tradition of unity. We are not unmindful of all the challenges that our workers are going through, such as issues of unpaid salaries and allowances. We are more determined than ever to address this in a manner that will guarantee better life to our members nationwide.”

  • Group decries non-payment of pension

    Group decries non-payment of pension

    The Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) has decried the non-payment of pension  for May to pensioners across the country.

    The union in a statement signed by the National President, Dr. A.O. Afolayan and the General Secretary, Elder Actor Zal, lamented the hardship the non-payment of the this month’s pension has caused its members all over the country.

    The statement reads: “Efforts to find out what could have been the cause of the delay for the payment received no proper and convincing explanation from the Federal Government  agencies.”

    The union, therefore, appealed to the Acting President  Yemi Osinbajo, to, as a matter of urgency, intervene and ensure that May pension is paid immediately without further delay in order to ameliorate the suffering of its members across the nation most of whom are aged. He added that it should be made a deliberate policy that pensioners are paid latest by 25th of every month.

    The union added that this could be one of the best legacies that this government would bequeath to the nation as it is done in other normal climes that recognise and appreciate the labour and services of their past heroes.

  • ZTE renews commitment to workers’ welfare

    Despite the economic downturn, ZTE Nigeria Limited has expressed its commitment to continue investing in the economy, particularly in the development of local human capital.

    ZTE Nigeria is the subsidiary of ZTE Corporation, one of the leading multinational ICT solution and service providers in the world.   It is listed on the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges.

    Its Head of Administration, Yawei Yang, said in Lagos that the company, which started operations in 2002 and  has over 100 employees, has impacted positively on  economy through its viable projects.

    ”We recognised the situation in Nigeria but are going to maintain our high standard in terms of service delivery and our commitment to good welfare package  for our staff. We are among the few telecoms firms that allow all our staff to unionise, we have generous welfare packages that include training and sundry allowances, mobile phone allowance because of our belief in the development of the local workforce,” she said.

    Reeling out the company’s labour profile, she said: “We have not outsourced any of our operations outside Nigeria as some telecoms firms are doing to cut costs. Only 17 per cent of our entire workforce are foreigners and we have   operated  within the ambit of the Extant Immigration laws and Regulations of Nigeria 2015 and all other administrative directives.”

    On allegation that the company overshot its expatriate quota, Yang explained: “Our ZTE China staff routinely visit Nigeria for discussions with other telecoms operators to have good business prospects, leading to the signing of agreement, which, unfortunately, has not been successful since 2014.

  • Expert advises govt to create 3m jobs yearly

    An economist, Dr Aminu Usman, has advised the Federal Government to create at least three million jobs yearly to address the high unemployment rate in the country.

    Usman, a lecturer at the Department of Economics, Kaduna State University, gave this advice in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.

    He said the Federal Government initially promised to create three million jobs every year but in the last two years it had only generated less than a million jobs.

    The don said the unemployment and underemployment reports for the last quarter of last year still showed the negative effects of the  recession on the citizens.

    The latest unemployment reports released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), showed that the country’s unemployment rate rose from 13.9 per cent in the third quarter to 14.2 per cent in the fourth quarter of last year.

    Usman, however, argued that a number of factors must have contributed to the reports.

    He said that one of the contributing factors was the unfriendly government policies towards managing the economy.

    “When the recession began to hit hard on the state government, it resorted to increasing taxes and imposing all kinds of charges on the citizens.

    “This is against all known principles of managing recession, which requires lowering and or eliminating taxes to boost consumption.

    “One of the first casualties of the recession is employment because  lower consumption rate, factory closure and job layoffs are the hallmarks of any economy in a recession,’’ he said.

  • ‘Africa loses $60b yearly through illicit financial flow’

    ‘Africa loses $60b yearly through illicit financial flow’

    •Takes campaign for minimum wage review to ILO confab

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, has expressed concern over the impoverishment of workers in the country, alleging that about $60 billion leaves the continent annually through illicit financial flows.

    Wabba, who led the workers’ delegates from Nigeria to the ongoing 106th International Labour Conference (ILC), told world leaders that the state of the working poor in Nigeria has continued to worsen.

    Soliciting for intervention, he said Nigeria’s chances at achieving sustainable development goals will be better enhanced if the illicit financial activities are halted and revenue channeled to government coffers to support public service delivery.

    Wabba, who blamed this on the high cost of living, rising unemployment, low social protection coverage, delayed payment of salaries said: “Due to the challenges faced by workers in Nigeria, a tripartite national minimum wage committee has been set up by the Federal Government to review the minimum wage”.

    In a related event, the NLC has taken the campaign for a new minimum wage to the on-going 106th International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

    President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba argued at the conference that the struggle for a new minimum wage has become even more compelling in the face of economic recession in Nigeria.

    His words: “We wish to state that the situation of the working poor in Nigeria continues to be dire and exacerbating. It is for these reasons that we have demanded and achieved the composition of the tripartite national minimum wage committee to deliver an upward wage review.”

    NLC Deputy President and President, Africa of the Public Service International (PSI), Peters Adeyemi, insisted that the government does not have any genuine excuse for not constituting the tripartite committee on minimum wage.

    He said: “For us in the labour movement, there is no reason the tripartite negotiation committee should not have been constituted by now. Nigerian workers are groaning under heavy yoke. So many of them can no longer afford basic necessities of existence.’’