The Nation Newspaper

Tag: labour

  • ‘Labour leaders’ feud not in workers’ interest’

    ‘Labour leaders’ feud not in workers’ interest’

    Feuding labour leaders have been asked to sheathe their swords and be united to fight a common cause.

    Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) Secretary-General Isa Aremu said the labour leaders’ squabble was doing unionism no good.

    Unless they close ranks and work together, the oppressors of workers would continue to have their way, Aremu said.

    Speaking with The Nation, he called for a truce among industrial unions affiliated to Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

    Lamenting the failure of unions to take a unanimous decision on the fuel price hike, Aremu urged them to work together as comrades and not as enemies in the interest of workers.

    “We regret that as we point two  fingers at bad governance and bad employers, the remaining three fingers point at us too, who are unacceptably divided against ourselves rather than united against a common class enemy.

    “It’s time we closed ranks to ensure we have a labour movement that commands the confidence of workers; trusted by the public, respected by the government and employers,” he said.

    Aremu urged unions to learn from the fall out of the fuel price hike and unite for a vibrant labour movement.

    He said: “If we operate separately, we will be defeated separately. But if we operate in unity, we will triumph as one. The recent 70 per cent fuel increase is indiscriminate in its price impact on transport cost and cost of living in general. The response of organised labour must, therefore, be inclusive and uniform, not disjointed as we recently witnessed.

    “The worsening poverty, rising inflation, job losses and bad governance must task our imaginations as labour leaders to work as one, instead of seeking positions for recognitions from governments and employers that do not deliver tangible results for the working men and women.”

  • Ekiti labour leaders slam Fayose for ‘feeding public with lies’

    Ekiti labour leaders slam Fayose for ‘feeding public with lies’

    Ekiti State labour leaders have accused Governor Ayo Fayose of feeding the public with lies to whip up sentiment against the workers’ strike.

    In a statement after an emergency meeting yesterday at the Labour House in Egbewa, Ado-Ekiti, they denied being part of a meeting, where money coming from the Federation Account was shared sector-by-sector.

    The statement, which was in response to the governor’s claims during his monthly media chat, was jointly signed by Paul Olayemi of Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), John Adebayo (Trade Union Congress (TUC) and Blessing Oladele (Joint Negotiating Council (JNC).

    It blamed the governor for mentioning just four of the 10 demands presented to him by the unions. According to the workers’ leaders, no solutions were given to even the four.

    They said the governor’s resort to divide and rule to break the strike won’t work since they were resolute to ensure that the five months arrears of salaries are paid.

    They said: “The ongoing strike is not an ego trip or politically-motivated, but about the rights of workers and pensioners who are dying daily out of hunger and frustration”.

    The labour leaders berated the governor for deciding to go on strike too, noting: “This (decision) leaves much to be desired”.

    They said contrary to the statement by the governor that he incorporated representatives of labour unions in the state’s monthly cash allocation meetings, “the meeting is only a briefing and not a cash allocation meeting”.

    “So, the idea of labour leaders sharing monthly cash allocation and the governor approving does not arise. There has never been any advice or suggestion given to government by the organised labour at this forum that has ever been taken,” the statement said.

    They added that there was ever a time they reached accords with government to pay only net salary, which would exclude cooperative deductions, bank loans and union dues.

    The labour leaders expressed regrets that the governor himself had condemned net payment when he came on board.

    They added that Fayose dismissed same as a “fraud” during his election campaigns.

    The organised labour expressed shock over the internally generated revenue (IGR) figures reeled out by the governor, which they said were contrary to that ever declared by the state’s accountant general at any of their meetings.

    According to them, while the accountant general gave figures, which ranged between only N150 million and N200 million, except that of N268 million for April, the governor during his media chat gave N267 million for September 2015; N252 million for October 2015; N195 million for November 2015; and N181 million for December 2015.

    They added that the governor said for January, February and March, the accruals were N389 million, N381 million and N302 million.

    “Labour was embarrassed to hear the monthly IGR read on air by his excellency,” the statement said.

    The leadership of the unions berated the governor for planning to pay only the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU), a section of workers in the state, which had decided to pull out of the ongoing strike action.

    They urged workers to remain in their houses until otherwise directed by their unions.

    Their words: “On the issue of outstanding salary, it is common knowledge that workers have performed their duties efficiently and effectively for the period of January to May 2016 and hence, they deserve their pay without further delay.

    “Therefore, contrary to government’s decision to pay the sector that opted out of the struggle is tantamount to divide and rule tactics usually employed by government in situations like this.

    “It should be noted that labour has neither suspended nor call off the ongoing industrial action. Hence, we are using this medium to implore the workers to stay at home and observe the strike action until the leadership of organised labour gives further directives.”

  • NBS: labour force hits 78.4m in Q1

    NBS: labour force hits 78.4m in Q1

    The population of the labour force(those in the working age who are actively looking for job) rose to 78.4 million between January and March according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

    The NBS said the figure was  76.9 million for the same period last year, representing an increase of 1.99 per cent.

    This is contained in a report titled: “Unemployment/Under-employment Watch Q1 2016,” released by the NBS.

    Based on the statistics, it  is likely  Nigeria has been unable to create the 1.5 million jobs required between the last quarter of 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 to keep the unemployment rate constant at 10.4 per cent.

    Additional 15 million economically active persons between 15 and 64 entered the labour force between last January 1 and March 31.

    According to the NBS, the new entrants into the labour market also consisted of newly qualified graduates, fresh entrants into the economically active population (who became 15 in Q1 2016) and those who chose not to work for whatever reasons in earlier periods, among others.

    The report added that within the same period, the number of those in fulltime employment decreased by 528,148 persons or 0.97 per cent.

    It explained that this category consists of people who lost their jobs and were either forced or for various reasons chose to move from full time employment to underemployment.

    The NBS noted that the drop in full time employment between Q4 2015 and Q1 2016 was predominantly those between the ages 15 and 24 years, followed by ages 55-64 years, ages 45-54 years, and ages 35-44 years.

    Against the backdrop, the report noted that with an economically active or working age population of 106 million and with a labour force population of 78.4million in the first quarter of 2016, the development means that 27.5 million persons within the economically active or working age population decided not to work for various reasons in the first quarter of 2016. Consequently, they are not part of the labour force and cannot be technically considered unemployed or underemployed, even though they were not working.

    The report buttressed this by stating that: “You have to be willing to work and actively seeking work before you can be considered unemployed.”

  • Labour’s teachable moment

    Labour’s teachable moment

    For Ayuba Wabba and company, last week’s fiasco must be something of a teachable moment. For a strike that was advertised as a Mother of Strikes, to say that it ended even before any shots were fired would pass for an understatement. It was simply a non-event.  Sunday’s announcement by the Nigeria Labour Congress “to suspend the strike with immediate effect” was for all intents and purposes, superfluous if not entirely face-saving.

    A revelation in labour’s vulnerability; its apparent disconnect and hence poor reading of the national mood; its fixations with old ways and means. Add these to an increasingly cynical and distrustful citizenry – what you get is a perfect recipe for a disastrous outing.  That was exactly what labour got.

    Looking back now, it seems doubtful that Wabba and company took time to read the mood of the people they elected to lead to battle. Had they taken the trouble, they would have realised how far the top rung of the body lagged behind their supposed followers – a case of the falcon being far too gone to hear the falconer.

    Of course, it wasn’t that Nigerians were not aware of how terribly bad things are at the time the federal government announced the new petrol price: the soar away inflation and shrinking real incomes, business foreclosures and the spate of layoffs as indeed the pervasive air of despondency that have reduced the Nigerian landscape to an outsized scrap-yard.

    The problem was the attempt by Labour to recreate 2012 #OccupyNigeria not minding that the terrains have changed. For much as the hike is no less burdensome than the one that provoked the 2012 protests that shook the Jonathan administration to its foundations, a number of intervening variables have since played out between then and now which should ordinarily dictate a more measured approach by Labour.

    First is the crash in the price of crude. At the current price of barely $40 a barrel for our crude, only labour can afford the luxury of pretending about what the grim numbers represent – which is quite unfortunate for a most enlightened body. In this, Nigerians would seem in better appreciation of the situation than labour would care to know.

    Like I noted severally on this page, the simple truth is that the country cannot afford the subsidy bill even if it wants to – much unlike 2012. Imagine the federation account being forced to shell out N1 trillion naira to fuel marketers to the defray cost-price differentials on petrol at a time some 27 states cannot pay wages of their workers! And to further imagine that that was what our activists wanted!

    The second is the context. Agreed, the Jonathan administration attempted to do exactly what the Buhari administration has just done but was frustrated by the 2012 Occupiers. I must confess that I have heard not a few leading commentators charge erstwhile protagonists of the movement with hypocrisy for not supporting the latest strike. Let me put it this way: When the contexts of both situations are factored in, the difference comes out stark clear.

    Nigerians may wish to recall that at the death of former President Umaru Yar’Adua in 2010, the entire annual subsidy bill was no more than N300 billion. Barely six months after President Jonathan took over, the bill shot up to a humonguous N1.9 trillion. In other words, consumption rose dramatically by more than a multiple of six under Jonathan!  That puzzle, unfortunately has remained unresolved till today. My understanding, ( and I am entitled to be sincerely wrong), is that the 2012 Occupiers didn’t risk lives and limbs because they loved subsidy anymore than the idea of shelling out billions of naira in subsidy payouts. It was not so much because they loathed the increasingly amorphous concept called deregulation; rather, it was to protest the licenced robbery that the payouts to Jonathan and Friends Inc. had become!

    By way of contrast, the issue with the Buhari administration is what to do with the subsidy baggage. Clearly, its earlier vacillation on the issue – in the face of the hard numbers – may have been unpardonable, what the administration cannot be accused of is juggling the figures. More importantly is that the administration did not provide a dime in the current budget for the subsidy. Of course, with fuel imports gulping 40 percent of the monthly import bills, and with the reserves barely able to cover four months of imports, only Labour can afford to live in the illusion that the situation was anything but desperate.

    No wonder Nigerians were more sympathetic to the federal government as against Labour that opted to live in denial. Moreover, for an industry that had for all practical purposes ‘self-regulated’, the charge by labour that the federal government sprang a “surprise” can only be described as amusing because the ‘prices’ had long been deregulated by the marketers across the federation – with perhaps the exception in Lagos and Abuja.

    Last week’s outing was therefore predictable.

    However, Labour may have lost the battle; the war far from over, has only just begun. To start with, a multiplicity of importers is not necessarily a guarantee that players will play by the rules. Trust our marketers weaned on the diet of entitlement, they will seek to abuse the system by all means fair and foul. For instance, contrary to earlier assurances that the marketers will use autonomous funds to bring in their products, the feelers are that they are already knocking on the federal government’s doors seeking forex from – you guessed right – official sources! And to imagine that the N145 per litre price agreed was based on autonomous funds rates! That’s how terrible the system has become. Vigilance, both on the part of labour and civil society as indeed the ordinary citizens, will certainly help in the days ahead.

    Secondly, it is time to do away with the current rent-riddled fuel pricing template in use. A starting point is to look at the countless charges on the template that tend to reward wastes and inefficiency. Labour, in may view, has the capacity to undertake this. One of the sore points on the template is the Petroleum Equalisation Funds which seeks to ensure price parity across the board. If you ask me – I’ll say that law has become anachronistic. It is most certainly incompatible with the current move to deregulate the sector. Labour will do well to make it one of the talking points of its negotiation with government if it truly seeks to address some of the distortions afflicting the industry.

    Last word: Was the schism within the labour movement part of its dialectics – a sort of inevitable moment of its own transition? Just wondering.

  • Fuel and the death of Labour

    Let’s face up to it: the labour movement in Nigeria is on life support. Its potential to exert pressure towards influencing governance processes has been demystified, and it may require wholesale reinvention to regain the historical stature.

    The movement’s undoing was its internal contradiction. It was touted as an ‘organised labour movement,’ but had carried on for some time now in sheer disorganisation propelled by irreconcilable factions. At the threshing floor, last week, the movement found an undertaker in the Muhammadu Buhari administration, which seized on its dysfunction to subdue a headstrong faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), while holding a pliant faction of the congress and other labour centres in check. Eventually, the headstrong faction bit the dust in an ill-advised venture to call out the public in rage against the recent increase of the pump price of petrol to N145 per litre. But the entire labour movement was no less the loser: its legendary solidarity and defining ideology – ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ – was fatally done in. Now, each labour centre is for itself and solely bears the burden of its chosen path. As they say, it is every man for himself and God for us all!

    It wasn’t that the fall of labour was unforeseen. The movement had it coming since the NLC split up in March 2015, following a shameful inability to manage an internal election into its leadership. In consequence, the Ayuba Wabba squad led some affiliate unions of the congress away in one direction, while the Joe Ajaero camp headed off with other affiliate unions in another direction. The two factions have ever since dug down in their trenches and have refused to be reconciled. As a result, labour is presently a house divided, and hardly presents a common front on any single issue.

    With the universal effect of the new fuel price on all workers and other Nigerians, one would expect that labour centres would for once attain to a common cause in unity of purpose. Well, they only almost did. The Wabba-led faction of the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), along with their civil society allies, served the government an ultimatum to back down on the new price or face public mass actions that they planned to call. For its part, the Ajaero faction of the NLC did not join the Wabba-TUC initiative, but rather issued a separate ultimatum – literally to the same effect. Oil industry unions, including the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), however voiced qualified support for the price hike.

    Only that, even with the semblance of a consensus, this was one issue on which labour leaders grossly misjudged the public mood. If they had hoped to re-enact the crippling mass protests against fuel price increase that were staged in 2012 under the former Goodluck Jonathan administration, they apparently overlooked the fact that the labour movement now lacks the kind of cohesion it had in 2012, and that the context of the price increase by the present administration differed in a large measure from what obtained in 2012.

    And really, you could say the latest call to mass actions was presumptuous. When labour leaders asked Nigerians to make ready for a drawn-out strike against the government by stockpiling food and other essential provisions, they apparently didn’t consider that a majority of citizens were having enough challenge affording provisions barely enough to get by for just one day at a time. This is particularly so, with unpaid salary arrears to workers in many sectors, about which the labour leadership hasn’t done much to win them some succour. Also, there are unprecedented levels of inflation in the economy at the moment that severely constrain the average citizen’s purchasing power and, in effect, the ability to stockpile provisions. Besides, many Nigerians had been so roughened up by recent shortages in fuel supply at petrol stations across the country that they would readily swallow the bitter pill of a higher price to get steady supply at the pumps. And then, perhaps most significantly, not a few citizens have come to terms with the reality that payment of trillions of naira by government in subsidy to fuel marketers was simply unsustainable: it was a corruption ridden scheme that served only a few at the expense of many.

    And so, the call to mass actions didn’t resonate with the public, even though the warriors in labour did not appear to have realised this. The government, of course, seized the moment to persuade some of the labour centres against the threatened strike and it succeeded. On the eve of the expiration of their deadline, the TUC and the Ajaero faction of the NLC dumped all plans for a strike and settled for continuing dialogue with the government, which, apparently for good effect, threw in a legal weapon by way of a restraining order against labour from the National Industrial Court (NIC). But the Wabba camp chose a different tack: it stormed out of the meeting with government and defied the NIC order to stay its course on the threatened strike. Only that in doing this, it ended up tipping the labour factor over the precipice. For instance, the talk by government of further negotiations with the labour unions and other interest groups makes a good sound bite; though I dare say that labour, as a pressure movement, has lost its clout and can only hope now in the moral conscience of the Muhammadu Buhari administration for a fair deal. We really must refrain from overstating things here, but I think it should give freedom-loving Nigerians cause for worry that what seems left of the labour movement in the near future are no more than pulsating nodes of a supine bulldog securely leashed by the government.

    Most Nigerians have accepted the latest increase in the pump price of petrol as an inevitable, if painful policy decision by the government. Still, it would seem that labour missed an opportunity to break down its petty barriers and coalesce, to correctly represent the interest of citizens to the government. Negotiating palliatives with government isn’t the most important task for labour leadership in the circumstance. There are many questions with the fuel price policy as presently formulated, and labour could help in holding the government to thinking through.

    For instance, the perennial shortage in fuel supply was linked to the fact that independent marketers left importation of refined fuel to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) because they could not source forex at the official rate. The government said the new fuel price was less about subsidy removal, and more a function of the prevailing rate of forex at the parallel market. The new pricing template is thus in the expectation that independent marketers would source foreign exchange from parallel sources to complement fuel importation by the NNPC. One question to ask, though, is where the parallel market would get its supply of forex to meet expectedly huge demands by independent fuel marketers. And then, would marketers’ recourse to the parallel market not worsen the scarcity of forex and further inflate the rates at that source? In such event, what happens if the marketers find the new price template unattractive and yet decline to engage infuel importation? Would we not be back to inadequate supply, and would that not compel further increases by government in pump price ad infinitum?

    Questions, and indeed many more questions. Labour would be much help to the citizenry by engaging the government to think through. But it needs cohesion and unity of purpose to do this.

  • Labour and dilemna of change

    SIR: From all indications, the strike action embarked upon by the Ayuba Wabba faction of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in protest against recent increased in the price of petrol from N86.50 to N145 is not effective. Reports from across the country show that many workers defied the strike to report at their various places of work. In major cities such as Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt, there were little or no signs the strike action as normal activities were on. In Lagos, for instance, regular activities were in full swing as banks, markets, schools, petrol stations and other public institutions were fully opened for business.

    Over the years, organized labour seems to have overdrawn its credit line with the Nigerian people in terms of integrity and genuine commitment of its leadership to protecting the general interests of the average Nigerian. Up till now, many people are still insisting that it was the compromising stance of labour leadership that bungled the 2012 fuel subsidy protest.

    Till date, the 2012 fuel subsidy protest remains, perhaps, the most well organized and widely supported in the annals of civil actions in the country. Sadly, it was while the protest was almost achieving its objective that labour leadership abruptly called it off.

    Insisting on strike action, at this point in our national life only goes a long way in exposing the cluelessness of labour leadership. It is no longer news that the Nigerian economy is currently experiencing a downward trend. The current fall in global prices of crude oil, a major source of revenue for the country, has serious implications for the country’s economy. Presently, the economic situation is biting so hard in some states in the federation as monthly receipt from the federal purse has sharply declined.

    It is, therefore, from this perspective that one faults the present insistence of labour on industrial action. Labour has to be more creative in its response to critical national issues. The reality on ground now does not justify strike action as such would further worsen the economic situation of Nigerians.

    Labour leadership, therefore, needs to come up with new strategies that would erase their perception as noise makers. The poser here is: Where was labour when all the nation’s refineries packed up? Where was labour when the nation began the disgraceful venture of importing petroleum products into the country? Where was labour when major public and private companies with huge employment generating potentials folded up? What did labour do to avert the collapse as well as the resuscitation of public corporations such as Ajaokuta and Oshogbo Steel Rolling mills and others alike?  Where was labour when the economy of the country was appallingly mismanaged to the point where we currently find ourselves? What happened to the mass transit business that labour once ventured into?

    Critical times as we currently experience in the country call for tremendous patriotic inclinations. Bravado and undue egocentric tendencies would certainly lead us to nowhere.

     

    • Tayo Ogunbiyi

    Lagos State Ministry of Information and Strategy,

    Alausa, Ikeja.

  • Fuel price hike: Nigerians don’t need strike now – CAN

    The Northern branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) on Monday told the Federal government and organized labour union to abort the planned strike in the interest of Nigerians.

    The CAN Public Relations Officer in the region, Rev. John Joseph Hayab, who spoke with journalists in Kaduna, told the federal government and labour to  sheath their swords and safe poor Nigerians from further hardship.

    “We understand the challenge of the time, though we may frown at the process in which the deregulation was carried out, but it is not enough reason for us to repeal the deregulation now, we must stop the attitudes of going forward and backward.

    “Our plea to the masses, labour and the federal government is to stop the strike action, because it will not remedy the pains Nigerians are going through,” he stated.

    They also appealed to the federal government to address whatever problems that led to the fuel hike with human face and with all responsibility and humility.

    “Labour and government must go to the roundtable and hold discuss on what to do to improve the living conditions of the people they are representing.

    “Strike will only affect our economy negatively and it will not even do good to the people we want to protect. It would only worsen their condition,” CAN argued.

     

  • Labour gives government three days to revert to old pump price

    Labour gives government three days to revert to old pump price

    •Says neo-liberal forces have hijacked government 

    Organised labour is poised for a showdown with the federal government over the N145 per litre petrol price announced on Wednesday.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and their civil society allies yesterday gave the Federal Government till 12 midnight on Tuesday, 17th May, 2016 to revert to the old pump price of petrol or face a nationwide shut down of the economy.

    They branded the government’s decision a neo-liberal agenda.

    NLC President Ayuba Wabba and his TUC counterpart, Bobboi Kaigama, in a joint statement asked Nigerians to stockpile enough food to last them for the duration of what they expect to be a long drawn out struggle for the reversal of the new price regime.

    They alleged that neo-liberal forces have taken over the government.

    Wabba who read the communiqué said government must revert to the old price regime to reduce the suffering of Nigerians.

    He said the price increase was mindless and a betrayal of trust on the part of the government.

    He recalled that the Minister of State for Petroleum Ibe Kachukwu had once told the nation that petrol subsidy had been removed through his ingenuity and that Nigeria was saving $1 billion from the process.

    His words: “Organized Labour wondered what has informed government’s sudden and dangerous policy summersault and its desperate attempt to convince the public that Labour was part of the decision that led to this price increase;

    “In view of the fact that the board of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which is statutorily vested with powers to recommend prices, has not been reconstituted, the price variation announced by any officer of the agency or outside the agency is not only ultra vires and illegal, it is a criminal imposition on the citizenry;

    “The price hike from N86:50 to N145, representing 67.63% increase, is the height of insensitivity and impunity as there was no previous consultation with stake holders, especially the organized labour, or any justification for this reckless decision other than the fact that government believes it is accountable to no one.”

    He faulted the statement of the Minister that marketers would have to source their dollars from the secondary market, pointing out that the attendant pressure on the dollar would lead to an unimaginable rise in the prices of commodities and other services thus creating further hardship for the people.

    He said further that: “In view of the fact that in the past five years, there has been no increase in salaries or wages or pensions  in the face of devaluations, spiraling inflation and other vagaries of the economy, this product price increase is unrealistic, unaffordable, unacceptable and is thus rejected;

    “Government is unable to justify this price increase other than the puerile explanation that marketers need to recover their costs, without a thought for the aggregate or larger national interest including the need for local refining and creation of jobs;

    “The government has remained recalcitrant in spite of a subsisting court injunction on the issue of the criminal increase in electricity tariff even in the face of ever-worsening power supply situation;

    “From the foregoing, it is evident that the neo-liberal forces in the government have taken over the government and we should expect more inhumane policies which will further degrade the living standard of the average Nigerian. The punitive electricity tariff and PMS product prices may just be teasers;

    “The implications are costly and far-reaching, with the first and most significant being that we have become dependent on massive importation of refined products to meet our domestic needs in contra-distinction to other OPEC members.

    “Whereas most OPEC members significantly meet their domestic needs through domestic refining by an average of 80 per cent, Nigeria on the contrary, at the pace it is going, will continue to rely on about 90 percent of imported refined products in the foreseeable future;

    “And because we are dependent on importation, the end-user price will always be influenced or determined by external factors such as the cost of refining abroad, transportation and others denominated in the dollar.

    “As the Naira continues to depreciate against the dollar, so will the woes of consumers in Nigeria continue to increase, a situation the Marketers in classic greed will exploit to their advantage;

    “Taking into account the utilitarian value of petroleum products in Nigeria, all sectors are going to be negatively affected by this mindless price increase as virtually all the stakeholders are agreed that the most significant contributor to the astronomical cost of doing business in Nigeria is the cost of energy.

    “NLC, TUC and other civil society allies are not unaware of the positions taken by the unions in the oil and Gas Industry. A process of engagement will be put in place in order to ensure   the success of the struggle to protect the overall interest of the Nigerian people.

    “In consideration of all of the above, we urge government to revert to the old price regime in order to reduce the suffering of the people and to consider this singular act of mindless pump price increase as a betrayal of trust;

    “Revert to the pre-45 percent electricity tariff increase, make meters available to consumers and stop estimated billing and reconstitute  the boards of PPPRA and NNPC without further delay and give them their statutory right to function alongside DPR in order to deepen the process of consultation, checks and balances in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry;

    “Government must intensify the prosecution of all those involved in subsidy scams with a view to recovery and sanctioning of the culpable; put in place enhanced local refining capacity within a specified period  in place of endless importation as an enduring solution to the perennial problem of scarcity;

    “They must reverse the entire deregulation and privatization process which foists on the nation, private individuals as drivers of the economy in contravention of the constitutional provision that says government shall be the driver of the  economy and engage the organised labour in the process of negotiation on key policy issues;

    “Government must wean itself from the overbearing influence of the neo-liberal elements in its fold who have not  only staged a coup but are determined to make this government collapse even before  the end of its four-year tenure;

    “The President must uphold its electioneering promises to Nigerians   instead of subjecting them to the vagaries of slavish policies such as full devaluation of the naira and total removal of  subsidy as enunciated by the IMF and its agents in the system;”In the event government fails to accede to these demands on or before 12 midnight on Tuesdaythe Nigeria Labour Congress, the Trade Union Congress and their civil society allies resolve to commence the following actions with effect from Wednesday, May 18, 2016;

    • Mobilize to the streets across the country, ordinary and helpless Nigerians to whom they owe the duty of protection;
    • Shut down all banks, sea and airports, government and private offices as well as markets.
    • Commence indefinite nationwide strike action.
    • Fight/resist the machinations and cruelties of the neo-liberal forces in the government as part of the process of saving the government from itself and the generality of Nigerians from slavery.

    “Nigerians are therefore advised to stock sufficient food items that will last for a while for the prosecution of the current struggle against neo-liberal agenda in Nigeria.”

  • Labour to FG: Revert to old pump price or face shut down

    Labour to FG: Revert to old pump price or face shut down

    Organised Labour, made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) and their civil society allies has given the Federal Government till 12 midnight of Tuesday, 17th May, to revert to the old pump price of petrol or face a nationwide shut down if the economy.
    In a joint communique signed by the President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and his TUC counterpart, Bobboi Kaigama, they asked Nigerians to stockpile enough food item to last them a while for the prosecution of the current struggle against neo-liberal agenda in Nigeria.
    They alleged that those they termed as neo-liberal forces have taken over the government and are determined to make the government collapse even before the four tenure.
    If the government fails to accede to the demands of the unions, the NLC, TUC and their civil society allies resolve to commence the following actions with effect from Wednesday, May 18, 2016;
    · Mobilize to the streets across the country, ordinary and helpless Nigerians to whom they owe the duty of protection;
    · Shut down all Banks, Sea and Airports, Government and private offices as well as Markets.
    · Commence indefinite nationwide strike action.
    · Fight/resist the machinations and cruelties of the neo-liberal forces in the government as part of the process of saving the government from itself and the generality of Nigerians from slavery.
    Nigerians were advised to stock sufficient food items that will last for a while for the prosecution of the ” current struggle against neo-liberal agenda in Nigeria”.
    He said the singular act of “mindless pump price increase is a betrayal of trust on the part of the government.
    He recalled that the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachukwu had told the nation that subsidy has been removed for petrol through his ingenuity and that Nigeria was saving $1 billion from the process.
    “Organized Labour wondered what has informed government’s sudden and dangerous policy summersault and its desperate attempt to convince the public that Labour was part of the decision that led to this price increase;
    “In view of the fact that the board of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), which is statutorily vested with powers to recommend prices, has not been reconstituted, the price variation announced by any officer of the agency or outside the agency is not only ultra vires and illegal, it is a criminal imposition on the citizenry;
    “The price hike from N86:50 to N145, representing 67.63% increase, is the height of insensitivity and impunity as there was no previous consultation with stake holders, especially the organized labour, or any justification for this reckless decision other than the fact that government believes it is accountable to no one”.
    The NLC President faulted the statement of the Minister that marketers will have to source their dollars from the secondary market, pointing out that the attendant pressure on the dollar will lead to unimaginable rise in the prices of commodities and other services thus creating further hardship for the people.
    “In view of the fact that in the past five years, there has been no increase in salaries or wages or pensions in the face of devaluations, spiralling inflation and other vagaries of the economy, this product price increase is unrealistic, unaffordable, unacceptable and is thus rejected;
    “Government is unable to justify this price increase other than the puerile explanation that marketers need to recover their costs, without a thought for the aggregate or larger national interest including the need for local refining and creation of jobs;
    “The government has remained incalcitrant in spite of a subsisting court injunction on the issue of the criminal increase in electricity tariff even in the face of ever-worsening power supply situation;
    “From the foregoing, it is evident that the neo-liberal forces in the government have taken over the government and we should expect more inhumane policies which will further degrade the living standard of the average Nigerian. The punitive electricity tariff and PMS product prices may just be teasers;
    “The implications are costly and far-reaching, with the first and most significant being that we have become dependent on massive importation of refined products to meet our domestic needs in contra-distinction to other OPEC members.
    “Whereas most OPEC members significantly meet their domestic needs through domestic refining by an average of 80 per cent, Nigeria on the contrary, at the pace it is going, will continue to rely on about 90 percent of imported refined products in the foreseeable future;
    “And because we are dependent on importation, the end-user price will always be influenced or determined by external factors such as the cost of refining abroad, transportation and others denominated in the dollar.
    “As the Naira continues to depreciate against the dollar, so will the woes of consumers in Nigeria continue to increase, a situation the Marketers in classic greed will exploit to their advantage;
    “Taking into account the utilitarian value of petroleum products in Nigeria, all sectors are going to be negatively affected by this mindless price increase as virtually all the stakeholders are agreed that the most significant contributor to the astronomical cost of doing business in Nigeria is the cost of energy.
    “NLC, TUC and other civil society allies are not unaware of the positions taken by the Unions in the oil and Gas Industry. A process of engagement will be put in place in order to ensure the success of the struggle to protect the overall interest of the Nigerian people.
    “In consideration of all of the above, we urge government to revert to the old price regime in order to reduce the suffering of the people and to consider this singular act of mindless pump price increase as a betrayal of trust;
    “Revert to the pre-45 percent electricity tariff increase, make meters available to consumers and stop estimated billing and reconstitute the boards of PPPRA and NNPC without further delay and give them their statutory right to function alongside DPR in order to deepen the process of consultation, checks and balances in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry;
    “Government must Intensify the prosecution of all those involved in subsidy scams with a view to recovery and sanctioning of the culpable; put in place enhanced local refining capacity within a specified period in place of endless importation as an enduring solution to the perennial problem of scarcity;
    “They must reverse the entire deregulation and privatization process which foists on the nation, private individuals as drivers of the economy in contravention of the constitutional provision that says government shall be the driver of the economy and engage the organised labour in the process of negotiation on key policy issues;
    “Government must wean itself from the overbearing influence of the neo-liberal elements in its fold who have not only staged a coup but are determined to make this government collapse even before the end of its four-year tenure;
    “The President must uphold its electioneering promises to Nigerians instead of subjecting them to the vagaries of slavish policies such as full devaluation of the naira and total removal of subsidy as enunciated by the IMF and its agents in the system.”

  • Labour warns against workers’ sack over ‘bloated’ wage bill

    Labour has warned against the sacking of workers under the guise of a bloated wage bill.

    Refering to Minister of Finance Mrs. Kemi Adeosun’s statement that about N165 billion has been spent on payment of civil servants’ salaries, Labour said it was shocked by the excuses being made to justify the failure of some states to pay workers and execute certain projects.

    Speaking with The Nation, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, said they were all a ploy to sack workers.

    He said: “We recall that it was widely reported that the immediate past administration discovered hundreds of thousands of ghost workers within the civil service.

    “The present administration has also told us that they have discovered some and adopted a series of measures to curb such. We are upset that the available information technology platforms and the Biometrics Verification Number (BVN) introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) have not helped to iron out these things.”

    The TUC president said labour was happy that the minister faulted the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) introduced by the last administration, adding that the system was sabotaged by elements benefitting from salary fraud.

    “We also welcome her claim that she has created a unit assigned with the sole responsibility of checking the salaries and catching those behind the over-bloated salary,” he said.

    He, however, said Labour would fight to finish any attempt to sack civil servants for errors that are not theirs, adding that it is the height of injustice to sack a worker who earns a stipend just to be able to sustain the payment of millions of naira to politicians.

    “We cannot be made to bear the brunt of what we do not know about just to massage the ego and pockets of a privileged few. Nobody or group should prompt a disruption of the prevailing peaceful industrial atmosphere in the country,” Kaigama said.

    In a related event, TUC has decried the recruitment of Permanent Secretaries from outside the civil service.

    Kaigama, who stated this in Abuja, said: “We wish to state that the recent appointment of Permanent Secretaries from outside the civil service contravened the relevant provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    “This is capable of doing collateral damage to the system. The ill-advised policy, if not stopped now, is capable of killing the morale of senior civil servants who have served their fatherland meritoriously for decades. This is because they can no longer aspire to rise to the peak of their career.”

    Kaigama urged the Federal Government to discontinue the practice while those already recruited particularly those above 60 years, should be disengaged.

    He said it was common knowledge that the civil service is the engine room that oils the wheels of government to ensure efficient and effective service delivery to the people.

    Kaigama cited Public Service Rule 020810, which stipulates that retirement age in the civil service shall be 60 years of age or 35 years of pensionable service whichever comes earlier.

    He also called on the Federal Government to quickly settle all outstanding arrears owed civil and public servants.

    According to him, the outstanding include salary arrears, promotion arrears dating back to 2007, first 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, duty tour allowance, mandatory training allowance for 2010, burial expenses and repatriation allowance, among others.

    “We are worried that the sum provided for the settlement of these arrears under the Service Wide Vote in the 2016 Budget is inadequate and has even been slashed by N28.5 billion by the National Assembly.

    “We, therefore, demand that the federal lawmakers retrace their steps on this issue and approve what was voted for the outstanding benefits of civil servants in the interest of industrial peace and harmony in the country.

    He also called on the Federal Government to prepare a supplementary budget to capture the balance of indebtedness to public servants so that the matter can rested.