The Nation Newspaper

Tag: International Labour Organisation (ILO)

  • NLC calls for review of obsolete labour laws

    THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba on Tuesday called for a review of obsolete labour laws in the country to bring them up to date with international best practices.

    He said doing so would make the laws more effective to defend the rights of workers across the country.

    Wabba spoke at the inauguration of the International Lawyers Assisting Workers Network in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

    The NLC president frowned at a situation where issues affecting workers are treated on ad hoc basis instead of following the standard stipulated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), which recommends a tripartite body to address issues concerning workers.

    He said the absence of the Nigeria Labour Advisory Council had relegated issues on workers’ rights to an ad hoc arrangement against the ILO conventions that employers, government and labour should sit at a round-table to address issues on workers.

    Read Also: NLC cautions Fed Govt over delay in new wage

    Wabba maintained that among the strongest pillars of democracy are the civil society groups and organised labour.

    He noted that “once you weaken those two institutions, it then means that democracy itself will be weakened and the rule of law will also be weakened”.

    The NLC president said the inauguration of the body would “provide us yet another opportunity to synergise because there have been a lot of changes in the world of work”.

     

  • Nigeria and the global youth forum

    While the echo of hosting the entire world last week, with over three hundred youths from across the globe as well as the  officials of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) converging on Abuja for a three-day Global Youth Employment Forum getting rested,  what ought to remain topical is the immense benefits and lessons emerging from the gathering. However, the issues appear to be passing unnoticed for reasons that connect to the abstract nature of labour administration. If every day, citizens often ask what ILO is about, its functions and relevance in their lives, even other levels of more knowledgeable citizenry could as well wonder the import of labour-related fora such as the one that forms the subject of this discourse. When for example one reads terms like the “world of work”, “tripartism”, “social dialogue”, “social partners”, “working poor”, “structural transformation”, “productivity measurement”, “labour intensity” and such other terminologies that explain realities in the world of work, how easily do they tie to comprehension. It becomes understandable therefore, reasons the vast gains of labour institutions and their largely seamless accomplishments could be under assessed.

    Now, while the world gathered in Abuja to discuss “Today and tomorrow with decent jobs for youth” as the theme of the forum enabled by the ILO and the government of Nigeria, three things struck me in particular as the Director General of the ILO, Mr. Guy Ryder, delivered his address. It is about the synch between the core elements of the ILO’s 2012 Call for action and the strategic operationalisation of an integrated youth employment strategies by the Buhari administration in a broader national development scheme.  The first imperative, according to Ryder, in this call for action, is that pro-employment macroeconomic policies for job creation must go beyond one or two ministries to being an integral multi-sector agenda of government, traversing ministries and agencies. This is clearly the practice in Nigeria as  the federal government has marked targets on key sectors with high propensity for job creation such as agriculture, works and housing, trade and investment, the Central Bank, special agencies and the National Social Investment Programme as arrowheads of job creation. The next is focal investment in education and skills done in such a manner that could contain the mismatch between educational skills and demands of the labour market. In this also, Nigeria is compliant as it aligns the prerequisites of the labour market with the capacity of the labour force. This creates synergy and makes responsiveness to innovations easier.  In real terms, the ministry of labour and employment has spearheaded the shift in emphasis from white collar jobs to the elastic opportunities that abound in the blue collar world in line with the changing world of work! When the active labour market policies that promote employment intensive investments came into focus during discussions, it reflected the creative industry financing and other initiatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria.  The reason I extrapolate and expose comparison on these development models is to draw attention to what easily passes for an unintended endorsement of our domestic efforts using the scale of global best development index.

    That apart, though reasons have been advanced for choosing Nigeria even above Europe and other developing countries for the hosting right of the youth forum, its peculiar offer to me, orbits in the inherent platform to market Nigeria to the world and the unique opportunities it granted to drive home, long sought requests severally made by Nigeria to the world body. How? Essentially, the forum brought to global focus, Nigeria’s inroads into creative opportunities in digital, as well as green, rural and blue endeavours, the areas that could transform rural and urban spaces from “centres of misery and poster boy of poverty,” as noted by the ILO Africa Regional Director, Cynthia Olajuwon, who also participated at the forum.

    At the end of the day, our youths interfaced with over three hundred others from across the world and are home with shared experiences and new lessons in entrepreneurship, such that when well harnessed, could cause millions be lifted out of working poor, that is, working so hard and earning so little. This best ensures human security in the broad sense of the world of work for the young people. Nothing can be more rewarding than interfacing entrepreneurship and self-employment models with the bursting energies and talents of the young people. The forum achieved that. Our youths also tapped into knowledge facilities of digital platform, tools and publications made available at the forum and are better equipped to “design, implement and monitor youth employment policies and programmes.”  The gathering also tackled underemployment, informality, working poverty and reached out for structural transformation as credible model to leverage youths into productive endeavours.

    At another level, the visit of the ILO Director General, the first since Nigeria became a member sixty years ago, was auspicious to renew requests which we have been making over the years. The upgrade of the ILO’s Country Office into a decent work technical office for the English-speaking West Africa, was brought to the front burner in our very soil and before the topmost officials of the ILO. Nigeria deserves no less. The first African country to enlist into the membership of the organisation in 1959, the largest contributor to the international organisation in the sub-region, holding the flagship in the domestication of the conventions of the ILO, tops in continental population with demographic diversities that could easily aggregate that of the region, we impressed that the elevation could no longer be postponed. While the president raised it in his address to the forum and at the courtesy call on him at the Presidential Villa, I went into specifics as the ILO officials paid a working visit to the ministry of labour and employment . Such elevation comes with a lot of benefits. It emboldens Nigeria’s locus as the focal point of ILO administration in the region. Besides, we sought the technical and financial support of the ILO for the implementation of action plans on varying national policies which include National Employment Policy, National Policy on Labour Migration, National Productivity Policy, National Policy on Child Labour and National Policy on Occupational Safety and Health, as well as the establishment of National Labour Market Information System. We also sought for more positions for qualified Nigerians in the ILO administrative organs.

    Alo is the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

  • 255 million youths not employable – ILO

    THE Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Guy Ryder, at the weekend painted a gloomy future for young people across the globe, saying a whopping 255 million young people across the globe are unemployable.

    He described them as “lost generation in formation” adding that young people typically are two to three times more likely to be unemployed than other adults. Ryder who became the first Director General of the ILO to visit independent Nigeria was in the country to attend the Global Youth Employment Forum which ended in Abuja on Saturday.

    He said “we should be realistic, there is an overall picture which really require us to stop, to think and then to take action. The reality as captured in aggregated numbers is a disturbing reality. Around the world, 255 million young people are not in employment, nor are they in education or training.

    “Young women are three times more likely to figure amongst that number than are young men. So we must ask ourselves, what is their future to be? Even when they can find a place at work, it can often be in extremely difficult conditions. And think of this. Another number 136 million young people are working, often working extremely hard, and yet they are still living in poverty.

    Read Also: JUST IN: Buhari, ILO Director-General meet in Aso Rock

    “These are the working poor, and in Africa that is the status of 60 per cent of young workers, often concentrated in conditions of informality and in the rural economy. Whether we like it or not, these are our global realities. And accept those realities besides the goals that the international community sets itself, when in 2015, it adopted the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”.

    He said further that the ILO’s own commitment to young workers gave rise to the very first international labour standard that was adopted in 1919, which is for the protection of young workers, stressing that the organisation has tried to step up action in this regard.

    He said further that in 2012, the ILO adopted its call for action on youth employment which basically sets out five areas of action. “These five areas are firstly, pro-employment macroeconomic policies that enable job creation amongst youth. That means that youth unemployment is not only a matter from ministries of labour or youth, but also the central banks, the ministries of planning, the ministries of finance and industries. This is a whole of government’s responsibility.

    “The second area is policy for and investment in education and skills. These are key so that the skills we provide young people with are those that our labour markets really need. And we talk frequently about the mismatch between the skills on offer and the skills that are needed. We need to do much better, and we need to make learning a lifelong process,” he said.

  • Nigerian labour leaders are hypocrites, says Ajaero

    President of the yet-to-be-registered Labour Centre, the United Labour Congress (ULC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, has said labour leaders in Nigeria play double standard and are hypocritical in things that concern their members and other Nigerians.

    Ajaero spoke on Wednesday when he led some leaders of the ULC to protest its non-registration at the ongoing International Labour Conference (ILC) in Geneva, Switzerland.

    He said Nigeria labour leaders often went to Geneva to criticise what was going on in other countries while closing their eyes to situations back in Nigeria.

    The union leader stressed that some labour unions in Nigeria were often opposed to the registration of new unions.

    According to him, such behaviour runs counter to the principles of freedom of association, which is one of the hallmarks of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

    Ajaero also faulted a statement credited to the immediate past Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, that the ULC was not registered because it had not met the requirements for registration.

    The union leader recalled that Ngige was only quoting the relevant laws upside down.

    He said: “There is freedom of association, but we are seeing victimisation of unionists for belonging to unions of their choice. You see people quoting obsolete laws, apparently to stop unions from existing or restrict people from belonging to unions of their choice.

    Read Also: Ajaero’s faction backs out of strike

    “Our mission here is to tell the whole world that Nigeria and Nigerian unions are paying lip service to freedom of association. We have a situation where unions discourage the formation of new unions.

    “Most unions in Nigeria …don’t want other unions to exist. This is against the freedom of association in Nigeria. We have seen a lot of hypocrisy in Nigeria. You come to Geneva and criticise the situation in Sudan and you fail to look at the violence in Nigeria and the number of people who have died, who could be more than those who have died in Sudan.

    “That is hypocrisy of the highest order; either from the state or Nigerian leaders in Geneva. I think the international community should know the situation in Nigeria so that if there is a need for them to assist us, they will do so. We came here to highlight that the hypocrisy in Nigerian labour unions must cease.

    “That hypocrisy also affects the movement to the extent that while we were talking about the N18,000 minimum wage, reviewed now to N30,000, some states were not paying N18,000.

    “As a result of that hypocrisy, those unions and labour centre in charge of those states kept criminal silence. A state like Zamfara was still paying N7,500 and the entire labour movement in Nigeria, the unions and centres in charge of those sectors kept quiet.

    “A state like Lagos was not paying the minimum wage; Imo was paying 70 per cent. If there is no awareness created by the press, the N30,000 minimum wage will be sold out.

    “So, we should go back to Nigeria and do our homework. We should not be seen as saints in Nigeria, while we suffer at home. So, we should go back to Nigeria and put our house in order.”

    Faulting the non-registration of ULC by the former Ministry of Labour, Ajaero said: “The minister was wrong in what he said about the non-registration of ULC because he was hinging that on the attainment of 12 new unions. That is why he was saying there were few unions remaining for the ULC to be registered.

    “The law is very clear that 12 unions can form a centre. But the minister refused to recognise existing unions and instead was talking about forming 12 new unions. That is a complete breach of Section 40 of the Nigerian Constitution which says that everybody has a right to belong to a political party of his choice, a religion of his choice and a union of his choice.

    “I have never seen where it is said that for belonging to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), you cannot belong to the All Progressivees Congress (APC). Even in secret societies, you can leave and join another organisation. It is only in the labour movement that somebody is telling you that the moment you join centre A, you cannot leave until you die.”

    Ajaero emphasised that since the Trade Union Act was in conflict with the constitution, the constitution should have taken precedence, saying “you can’t quote the Trade Union Acts when the constitution has spoken. So, for the Minister or any other person for that matter to violate the constitution, it is wrong and not acceptable to us. We have been playing this down and that is why I spoke about freedom.

    Asked if they have challenged the decision in any court of law, he said: “As we speak, the only letter we got from the Ministry is that they have received our application for registration and is being processed. Before you head to court, you must have evidence that you have been rejected.

    “I have it on good authority that it took TUC about 27 years to be registered and the law was still clear that the moment you fulfil these things, you exist.

    “Even before they were registered, the government was inviting them to meetings until they were registered even though they were having little disagreement with the NLC.

    “They were recognised just like ULC is recognised now, but not yet registered and that was why he invited them to the valedictory speech. The process of doing these things are within them and if they do us a letter saying we will not be registered because you existed somewhere before and you must remain there. Then, we will be talking about taking legal steps.”

     

  • ILO seeks more African participation in global youth initiatives

    The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Regional Director for Africa, Cynthia Samuel-Olonjuwon, has called for more participation of African countries in the Global Youth Initiative by emulating Nigeria.

    Samuel-Olonjuwon spoke when the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, William Alo, led the Nigerian delegation to her office at the Palais des Nation, Geneva, Switzerland.

    The ILO regional director congratulated Nigeria for being one of the five countries that are members of the Global Youth Initiative, which brings together about 20 United Nations (UN) agencies to support the Global Youth Employment Agenda.

    Read Also: 50 labour leaders for ILO centenary

    She said: “I used Nigeria to encourage other African countries to be part of this initiative. It is not surprising because Nigeria is the first country where ILO physical presence was established.

    “It is the only country in Africa that is part of the Global Youth Initiative. It is not surprising that Nigeria is hosting the Global Youth Employment Forum in August 2019. We appreciate the commitment of the President and people of Nigeria to the hosting right and wish the country a successful event.”

    Samuel-Olonjuwon said ILO’s Director General Guy Ryder would be physically present to declare open the Global Youth Forum in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

    She added that Nigeria, as a member of the Global Youth Initiative, would strategically use the opportunity for itself and Africa.

    Alo expressed Nigeria’s readiness to host the Global Youth Employment Forum.

    He said: “The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, has approved the hosting of the event by Nigeria. An inter-ministerial committee has been set up involving all relevant government agencies and series of meetings and planning are ongoing towards the success of the event.”

     

  • 55 percent of humanity not covered by social security, says ILO

    Director General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Guy Ryder has said that 55 per cent of the world’s population is still not covered by social protection.

    He said global commitment to social protection is a prerequisite to securing sustainable transitions over the life course.

    Ryder, who spoke at a high level forum on social protection as part of the ongoing centenary celebration of the International Labour Organisation, said sustainable social protection system will become increasingly critical to provide support in a fast changing world of work.

    Participants at the forum were of the view that digitalisation, demographic shifts, climate change and globalisation will affect the way people manage transitions during the course of their lives.

    They stressed the importance not only of decent job creation policies but also of social protection to help workers, and particularly the most vulnerable, manage those transitions.

    Managing Director of the International Monetary, (IMF), Christine Lagarde, spoke of “social spending,” which she said includes social insurance and social assistance, as well as public spending on health and education.

    According to Lagarde, “Social spending is not just an expense, but rather can be among the wisest of investments in the well-being of our societies

    Expansion of access to education and health generates broader productivity across the population, allowing all citizens to flourish. To reap the rewards of a stronger global economy societies must begin by strengthening social programmes today.

    “I would argue that social spending is a core component of the social contract needed to fulfil the missions of our respective institutions.”

    Read Also: ILO: women in leadership perform better

    Also speaking, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said that by mitigating the negative impact of unemployment, creating access to further education, improving labour market opportunities and securing access to at least the core contents of the right to health, food, water and sanitation, education, housing, social security systems, you can ensure that individuals in all of society are protected from the worst impact of upheavals.”

    General Secretary, European Trade Union Confederation, Luca Visentini said it was essential that workers, including those in the gig economy, had access to lifelong learning and “have real access to universal social protection systems that can protect them from shocks… but at the same time can also make transitions smoother.”

    But, he added, “all this doesn’t work if there is not a clear strategy in place for quality job creation

    Joannie Marlene Bewa, UN Young Leader for the Sustainable Development Goals, said, “we have to make sure we have inclusive policies that build on, not only the needs of the most vulnerable, but also hear the voices and needs of young people.”

  • ILO asks countries to ratify labour conventions

    To mark its centenary, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has called on governments to ratify at least one international labour standard in 2019.

    According to Director,  International Labour Standards Department, Corinne Vargha,  since its founding in 1919, ILO labour standards have improved the working lives of millions of people.

    She said from eliminating forced and child labour to ensuring the rights of seafarers and promoting gender equality, the 189 Conventions and 205 recommendations adopted by member states during the last 100 years have formed the bedrock of the ILO and its mandate.

    “However, many issues in the world of work remain, and with new challenges being created by globalisation and cross border activities, international labour standards are needed more than ever. Therefore, to mark its Centenary, the ILO is urging its 187-member states to ratify at least one additional ILO Convention or Protocol in 2019.

    “We hope that as many member states as possible will step up to the plate and ratify this year. Ratifications and the full application of ILO global labour standards will ultimately lift up millions of workers whose livelihoods today, like 100 years ago, are facing substantial challenges. The implementation of international labour standards ensures that no one will be left behind in the world of work,” she said

    To gauge progress towards this goal the ILO will track all 2019 ratifications in real time on a new dashboard. More than 30-member states have already made a head start, having signed Conventions or Protocols in 2019 or ratified instruments that will enter into force this year.

  • Why FG withheld salaries of health workers, by Ngige

    Minister of Labour and Employment Senator Chris Ngige has said the federal government withheld salaries of health workers who embarked on strike in 2018 because the International Labour Organisation (ILO) convention allowed employers to hold back salaries of workers on essential services anytime they withdraw their services.

    Ngige also said that by the oath of the medical profession, professionals are not supposed to embark on strike because the services they render have to do with human lives, which if lost cannot be regained.

    The Minister, who spoke in an interview at his residence in Abuja at the weekend, said the government did not apply the same policy on the striking members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnic (ASUP) because the lecturers can recover lost ground by teaching extra hours.

    He also said the Minister of Education did not write to request for permission from his Ministry in accordance with the law requesting for permission to apply the no work, no pay rule.

    While the government was yet to pay the salaries of health workers on the platform of the Joint Health Sector Unions for the period of April and May 2018 when they were on strike, they failed to apply the same rule on the striking lecturers, withdrawing the notice barely 24 hours after it was issued.

    Health workers have alleged they are being punished because the Minister of Labour and his health counterparts are medical doctors.

    Read Also: …N27,000 is for all workers— Ngige

    Explaining what led to the invocation of the policy on the health workers, the Minister said: “When they went on strike in 2018, I told them as the conciliator, ‘’call off your strike to make for meaningful discussions so that no one will be under duress’.

    “They started the discussion with health and it broke down, they were still on strike and they came to me and when they came to me I said I will not conciliate anymore because if I apprehend a strike they must call off.

    “If you don’t call off I only have two things to do. It is either I send you to industry aberration panel or I can send you direct to a National Industry Court of Nigeria NICN.

    “They refused to call off and the health ministry wrote me and informed me that they are invoking ‘no work, no pay’ which is section 43 of the trade dispute act which say that when a worker leaves his work and goes away, the employer is not obliged to pay during those periods.

    “In many of the principles and conventions and decided cases that came to the committee on freedom of association and the committee on labour standards; the ILO have rules that apply to essential services.

    “They defined essential services as those services in which when the worker withdraw his services, such withdrawal will cause interruption that will lead to lose of lives and safety on a national scale or provincial scale or you have a national calamity, the employer is permitted to withhold wages.

    “It went further to say that in withholding wages, the employer can also replace such staff to make the business run and if it is a hospital; saves lives.

    “They have started comparing issues and saying that health minister and myself are doctors and because of that, we said that the salaries should be ceased or withheld.

    “But the labour laws are clear in section 43 that if there is withdrawal of services especially when it is done illegally or done by an essential service person, you have right to withdraw with those salaries or wages to enable you put someone else there.

    “This is the position; you can’t compare a worker who is in charge of dialysis or nursing services to a lecturer because once a life is lost in the period of strike you can’t replace it while a lecturer can teach day and night to make up for the lost grounds that is why the labour act and the ILO defines essential services and makes particular clearance for them.

    “It is not that I hate anybody or the health minister hates anybody. But this is what it is and this is enforced by the fact that some doctors who went on strike in some hospitals in 2016 had their money ceased at federal medical centre Owerri and Jos.

    “They withdrew their services unjustly and because they are essential services workers, section 43 of the law applies to them.

    “They came back in 2018 to beg me to beg Health Minister and I said you are my colleagues but I couldn’t and I won’t because the lives lost at that time, we can’t replace them.

    “I am a doctor and I have never gone on strike in my life because it is against the doctoral oath. Even those nurses, it is against their oath. So for me, once you are on essential services and you want to withdraw your services it must have its consequences as far as I am concerned.”

  • 152 million in child labour globally – ILO

    Director-General of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Guy Ryder, has said that about 152 million children between the ages of 5 And 17 are trapped in incidences of child labour across the world.

    Speaking at an event to mark the World Day against child labour at the ongoing 107th session of the International Labour conference in Geneva, Ryder said world leaders must take steps to address the rout cause of child labour if incidences of child labour are to reduce across the world.

    The ILO Director General said between 2012 and 2016, there was “almost no reduction in the number of children aged 5 to 11 in child labour, and the number of these most vulnerable, youngest children in hazardous work actually increased.

    “These children typically begin child labour at the age of six or seven and they commonly perform hazardous work as they get older.”

    while calling for urgent action to tackle the economic root causes of child labour, Ryder said attention must be paid not only to global supply chains, but also to unpaid family workers in agriculture.

    Read Also:FG moves to end child labour, ensure safety in work place

    He said “the challenge is not just about globally-traded garments, tobacco and cocoa; it is also about local markets for sorghum, millet, bricks – and it’s about domestic work as well,” he said, ahead of the World Day against Child Labour, marked on June 12.

    Ryder said the 152 million children in child labour worldwide is partly because of the child labour in agriculture – which is mostly unpaid family work, which has been on the increased.

    The event in Geneva also marked the 20th anniversary of the Global March against Child Labour, which culminated in June 1998, when hundreds of marchers, including children, took to the stage at the International Labour Conference, where delegates paved the ground for the adoption in 1999 of ILO Convention No. 182  on “Eliminating the Worst Forms of Child Labour.”

    Speaking at the event, an Indian children’s rights activist and Nobel peace prize laureate,  Kailash Satyarthi, who had led the Global March against Child Labour, in June 1998, told the panel that much still remains to be done to eliminate child labour across the world..

    he said “If the children are still trapped in the international supply chains, if the children are still enslaved, if the children are still sold and bought like animals – sometimes for less than the price of animals – to work in the fields and farms, and shops and factories, or for households as domestic workers, this is a blot on humanity”.

    General Secretary of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations (IUF), Sue Longley, stressed the importance of keeping a strong focus on agriculture, which is where about 70 per cent of child labour is.

    On his part, Nazrene Mannie, from the Board of Business Unity in South Africa, highlighted the difficulty of tackling child labour when it takes place in family farms or enterprises, often hidden from public view.

    This year’s World Day against Child Labour also seeks to promote safety and health for young workers. Speaking on that topic, Mariam Kamissoko, of the National Social Security fund in Cote d’Ivoire, pointed out that the rate of accidents is higher among youth than among older workers.

     

  • ILO urges countries to create enabling environment for migrant workers

    ILO urges countries to create enabling environment for migrant workers

    The International Labour Organisation (ILO) on Thursday urged various governments to create enabling policies that would help countries yield positive benefits for labour migration.

    Mr Guy Ryder, ILO Director-General, in a report, said that the skills and experience from migrant workers should be recognised to better utilise their full potential.

    Ryder said the main incentive for migration was finding a decent job, hence, policy choices matter greatly to improve labour migration.

    He said that international community should enhance the governance of migration and find new ways to improve the lives and working conditions of migrants.

    “About 74 per cent of all working age migrants – 150 million – are in the labour force and in search of decent work.

    “If we are to foster the benefits of these movements for all concerned, our policy choices would matter greatly,’’ he said.

    Ryder reiterated that Labour migration could yield many positive benefits when it was well-governed.

    He advised leaders to fix policy gaps such as eliminating the high costs and recruitment fees paid by migrant workers which might lead to human trafficking.