The President, National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber and Non-Metallic Product Employees, Mr. Olatunji Babatunde, is dissatisfied with the continued replacement of full-time workers with temporary, casual, outsourced and contract workers.
Speaking in Lagos, Babatunde said such trend endangers the economy, adding that employers now hide behind what they call the ‘core value’ of their business to casualise over 70 per cent of their workforce through outsourcing and contract employment.
He explained that precarious work has led to increasing erosion of basic workers’ rights, such as freedom of association and collective bargaining, adding that the use of temporary or casual workers has led to depletion in the membership and capacity of labour unions in all sectors of the economy.
Babatunde said: “We ask employers of labour to respect the law and where the law is observed in breach, the ministry of labour and other agencies of government should enforce the law.
‘It is unacceptable that the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) and Nigeria Industrial Court (NIC) will deliver judgments and employers will disregard such judgments.
“The union, therefore, demands immediate end to all forms of employment that offend human dignity and deny workers access to living wages, social protection and the right to join the union”.