•Kick against El-Rufai’s new engagement rules
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) yesterday threatened to shut down Kaduna State to protest against the new rules of engagement put in place by Governor Nasir El-Rufai .
The state Chapter of NLC, said the government had issued out a form , titled ; Special Exercise on Staff Verification , where it requested all workers under its payroll to either fill a “Yes or No”, for membership of union .
Addressing a large crowd of workers that converged on the Kaduna NLC Secretariat, the Chairman of TUC, Comrade Boiboi Kaigama and that of NLC Comrade Ayuba Waba in their separate speeches submitted that no reasonable government will deny workers of their fundamental rights to belong to a union for protection of their rights.
The union chairmen, asked El-Rufai to expunge the portion of the verification form that appeared to be anti labour or face very strong actions that will ground the state.
Waba , who said no worker has right to opt out of union and enjoy minimum wage, emphasised that the 1948 UN Charter gives rights to workers to belong to trade union of their choice. He added: “If workers have gone through several verification exercises, why this one again? Any verification form issued without the consent of either labour or government is unacceptable.”
While urging all labour leaders in the state to call for an emergency meeting to discuss and decide the next line of action before Wednesday, when joint decision will be taken, Waba ordered all civil servants in the state not fill any anti labour forms, stressing, “We must continue to insist that workers must work under freely without intimidation.”
Similarly, President of TUC, Boiboi who said time has come to tell government that workers are the owners of the land , said ,”We hold El-Rufai in high esteem ,but it is sad that someone that was an executive council member , does not know that union membership is not the issue of government, is an aberration.”
Earlier in his speech, Kaduna NLC Chairman, Comrade Adamu Ango said the government has pushed labour unions to the wall and they are prepared to fight back.
In a swift reaction, the state government in a statement by Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan said the government respects the right of workers to freedom of association.