The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Labour Day

  • Labour Day: Osun to begin implementation of NHIS

    Osun State governor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, has promised to begin implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) this month.

    Speaking at this year edition of Workers’ Day Celebration in Osogbo City Stadium, the governor said the implementation will facilitate accessible and beneficial healthcare to the people.

    According to him, the government will begin to release its counterpart funding by the end of May.

    He commended the workers for being supportive to the policies, actions and programmes of his administration by being committed, dedicated and patriotic.

    The Governor spoke on Wednesday at the 2019 Workers’ Day Celebration, the first since the inception of his administration, at the Osogbo City Stadium. 

    Oyetola was represented by Deputy Governor Benedict Alabi, who was supported by other top government functionaries including Secretary to the State Government, Pince Wole Oyebamiji; Chief of Staff to the Governor,  Dr. Charles Akinola and Head of Service Dr. Olowogboyega Oyebade.

    Chief Judge Justice Adepele Ojo represented by the Chief Registrar, Mr Lawrence Arojo and Speaker Osun House of Assembly; Hon. Najeem Salam was represented by Chairman House Committee on Labour matters, Hon. Abiodun Awolola.

    The Nigeria Labour Congress Chairman in Osun State, Jacob Adekomi, his Trade Union Congress counterpart, Adebowale Adekola; the state Chairman, Joint Negotiation Council, Bayo Adejumo, and other labour leaders were also at the ceremony.

    The Governor noted that the workers in the state had displayed competence and pulled their weight as the genuine engine room of the government.

    ‎ Oyetola said: “For these and more, I commend and celebrate the workers for a display of unparalleled commitment, industry and patriotism that are in tandem with the 21st Century competitive world.

    “The conduct and character of workers have further given vent to the reputation of the state as one of the most peaceful states in the nation.”

    Governor Oyetola pledged his administration’s commitment to improved welfare for all categories of workers in the state.

    He said his administration had been working assiduously to ensure equitable distribution of resources and services to achieve sustainable and competitive development.

    He said: “My Administration is people and worker oriented, indeed, people and workers are at the centre of all we do.

    “It is the resolve of this administration to give improved welfare to workers from time to time, the little we have been able to provide during this period of economic crunch is proof that we shall sustain the tempo as our plans bear fruits and the fortune of the state continues to look up.

    “In the health sector, we are revitalizing nine General Hospitals and 332 health centres, one per ward, to ensure quality and adequate healthcare. 

    “The component of this intervention includes rehabilitation of the buildings, provision of relevant drugs and equipment as well as training and re-training of staff.

    “You will all recall that during the presentation of the Budget 2019 speech to the House of Assembly last December, I promised the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) as a way of delivering adequate healthcare for all. We shall commence the implementation this month.

    “Government will start contributing its counterpart funds while also taking care of the vulnerable in the State. I urge the leadership of Labour to urgently play its own part so that, together, we shall achieve the objective of delivering quality and adequate healthcare to our people.

    “This year’s May Day is a toast to courage, patriotism, understanding, creativity and support in honour of our dear solution-seeking workers. 

    “I would like to appreciate the leadership of workers’ Unions across the State for their tremendous guidance and direction, which have stood our dear State out as a Land of Peace and a State of the Virtuous.”

    ‎Chairman, Osun NLC, Comrade Adekomi, lauded the state government for prioritising the welfare of its workers. 

    Adekomi hailed Governor Oyetola for sustaining the full payment of salaries and pensions to all categories of active and passive workers since assumption of office.

    ‎He appealed to the state government not to relent in its effort at building a virile, wealthy and healthy workforce that will be a pride to all.

    He said: “We appreciate the effort of the present administration in continuous payment of full salary to all and sundry in the state civil service.

    “We shall always be grateful to our governor having listening ears to our yearning as we look forward for a crisis free tenure.” 

  • It’s yet another Labour Day, folks …

    It’s yet another labour day, folks, and I’m right now feeling the full weight of my heavy work schedule. As an African woman, conventionally, I am a hewer of wood and fetcher of water. When I am not busy hewing and juggling wood, gas, kerosene and coal like a regular juggler to give a right balance to my housekeeping allowance and ensure it stays in the air (you really should see me), then I am busy fetching and carrying – anything from food, water or chair to flowerpots, child or husband from sun up till sun up. Yep, it is right that I should be celebrated, especially since no one pays me for any of these, not even for carrying the husband.

    I have just described part of your typical housewife’s work. One woman said I should add that with the new liberation that women now have, she also must supply the money to buy the food that she hauls and cooks. Then, in order to get her money back, she must now pet the man of the house, pat him on the head, rub his back, feet and ego. In the process, she must smell his feet. It’s no wonder women are sooooooo tired and headachy at the end of the day; it comes from all these busy schedules of feet smelling. No wonder they never take their apron off; it’s for wiping the nose. Phew!

    Only very few people have heavier schedules with less pay than the average housewife but who is to tell the chief executive of Nestle that? However, our story today is not about housewifery or the one who does it; it’s about the Nigerian worker who actually does the Nigerian work.

    The Nigerian work flows aplenty. You’ll find it in the factories, schools, civil service offices, corporations, streets, homes, and anywhere you would care to look. The work is also being done, or pretending to being done by your average Nigerian. True, most times, the average Nigerian places more value on the pay than on the work, but you can forgive him; he’s just being a Nigerian in those moments.

    True, most workers all over the world tend to place the value of their work on the pay they receive, and contrive to put in less than or equal to the value of their pay into their work. I think this is why they have union officials who are forever shaking their fists and muttering at management, while negotiating more pay for less work and hours. And I think they have succeeded in getting less work and less hours, but I hear they are still talking about that pay rise.

    Anyway, this labour day talk is different. On this labour day, we want to see exactly what the Nigerian worker has accomplished. To you and I, it appears there is much to show for all the talks trade union officials have been having with government and employers since the early nineties when the talks began in Nigeria. True, no one can claim that workers have found themselves where they really want to be today. Largely though, there appears to be more social and rights consciousness among workers. The only trouble is that the more advancement they seem to get, the more the goalpost shifts away from them. It’s just like me now. Every time I think I have arrived at the pinnacle of fashion with a new dress, the glossy magazines shift the parameters. Life is just not fair.

    What is also not clear is the theme for this year’s labour day celebrations, uniting workers for social and economic advancement. It says that I must unite with other workers in order to achieve social and economic advancement. And there I was thinking I was already united with other feet-smelling women. I thought that was why indeed we had got this far. Obviously, I was wrong; there is still a lot of uniting to do. I guess they must mean that there are many fronts where workers are not quite united.

    Take the Nigerian labour case as an instance. I understand that there are factions of the general body. I think we have talked about the NLC factionalisation before so we shall not be repeating ourselves even though I love doing that. However, for this theme to come up this year is a sign that things are not yet right and something is still smelly in this labour state all over the world.

    One thing is clear: a united labour front can determine how well it goes with the body. I’m sure the leaders know this very well. However, for reasons best known to the individuals at the heart of this fractioning business, the union persists in disunity. Different bodies are conducting affairs for the union on different fronts. How does this work?

    Might we just remind the labour body or bodies now that it was unity that helped her to achieve great things in the past. Ask the past labour leaders. That was when leaders were men. Their leadership was not for personal gain but for the welfare of the general body. Why, the strong leadership such men provided even helped the country to stand up as one man against the federal government on the petrol subsidy removal some years ago. The union functioned veritably as an opposition party to any government without being partisan.

    Unfortunately, this story of unity changed suddenly, and suspiciously after the last standoff between the country and its government. Exactly what caused this is difficult to say. Some people have attributed the break to money and its power. They have said that people have been enticed with money to lead breakaway factions and breakaway of breakaway factions in order to weaken the strength of the broken body. Get that?

    Some people have even pointed fingers at the government as the planter of disunity. They have said that in order to prevent that kind of unified standoff again, it was better to make ‘things to fall apart … so that the centre cannot hold’. Who knows where the truth of that lies?

    What I do know is that NLC as we used to know it is in disarray and the country is the poorer for it. If indeed there has been some external governmental interference, then I would put it down to ignorance, and I would use the analogy of pain to illustrate this.

    Now, one of the things I hate is pain. For me, pain is an irritant, a curse and a most wicked thing to have been planted in the human body. Why indeed do I need to feel pain when I stub my toe or cut my finger? For me, the pain of pain is worse than the original injury. It’s even worse for me when it comes to injections. You should see me do the dance transnationale and dance macabre before I would allow anyone to come near me with the wicked looking things.

    Anyway, as I have grown, I have come to the understanding that pain has a purpose. Unbelievable! Well, this time also coincided with when I could ask questions and gain knowledge. That was when I found that a body that does not feel pain might soon find itself in hot water and not even know it, no pun intended.

    I have since imbibed the ‘Pain is good’ philosophy; I don’t like it, but I accept it, just as I accept the light/darkness dichotomy. Someday, we’ll talk about that. In the same way, whoever is afraid of the strength of our labour union needs to calm down. A strong union should exist for a reason – to serve as a barometer for the society.

  • Workers to FG: Prioritise review of minimum wage

    A cross section of workers in Abuja has called on the Federal Government to prioritize the upward review of the national minimum wage, to promote productivity and national growth.

    The workers made the call in separate interviews with our reporters on Tuesday in Abuja, on the sideline of activities to commemorate the 2018 Workers Day.

    May Day or Labour Day is observed as public holiday in many countries worldwide, including Nigeria, in celebration of workers.

    They said that the call for the government to prioritise the minimum wage review had become necessary because of the delay in the implementation of the new minimum wage.

    A worker, Mr Sunday Onojah, said that the national minimum wage law prohibited employers to hire workers for less than a given hourly, daily or monthly take home pay.

    Onojah, a staff of the Ministry of Trade and Investment, said that workers would be grateful to President Muhammadu Buhari, if he fulfilled his promise on the issue of minimum wage.

    According to Onojah, if the president can consider workers’ plights and ensure upward review of the minimum wage, it will go a long way to ameliorate the suffering of workers.

    “If that is done, we will be very grateful to him and continue to pray for him.”

    A female worker, who pleaded anonymity, urged the government to harmonise workers take home pay, to ensure equal opportunity for them across the country.

    “I want the government to pay us what it pays staff of the National Assembly (NASS) because they are not using their own money,” she said.

    Similarly, Mr Christian Ojabo urged the government to honour its promise to implement a new minimum wage by September, to boost productivity in the work place.

    He said the N18, 000 minimum wage was long overdue for review and urged the government to act promptly to improve the economic well-being of workers.

    Ojabo urged the government to keep to its promise and ensure prompt review before the end of the year.

    “We will be very happy if that is done, because it will reduce our sufferings with the lingering economic and domestic challenges.”

    Also, Mr Ibahim Olatunji commended the government for agreeing to pay a new minimum wage, but advised that concrete steps should be taken to achieve the target.

    He said that although the government had promised to review the national minimum wage by the third quarter of the year, it should put measures in place to ensure effective implementation and curb inflation.

    According to Olatunji, the government needs to do the needful, since the agreement was that every five years the minimum wage will be reviewed.

    “It is over five years since the minimum wage was reviewed to N18, 000, therefore, if workers are asking for upward review, the government should not drag feet, but implement the policy.”

    Also speaking,  Mr Abdulwaheed Omar, a former President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), urged the government to always implement the law on regular review of the national minimum wage to promote national growth.

    He recalled that the minimum wage was due for review in 2015 and urged the government to put measures in place to achieve the desire goal.

    According to him, the law provides that the minimum wage should be reviewed every five years; the law was established to address issues faced by workers.

    “I think the cause for review of the national minimum is welcome; it is just that it is almost belated, the issue of minimum wage is an aspect of our law; it is now part of our law in Nigeria.

    “It is not something that government should wait until NLC threatens to embark on strike before it sets up committee; it is about the law that should be respected,” Omar said.

  • Brazilian unions call nationwide strike

    Brazilian unions called nationwide strikes on Friday to protest President Michel Temer’s efforts to reduce social security benefits and weaken labor laws, with disruption expected to road and rail transport, factories and schools.

    Many workers were expected to heed the strike call, due in part to anger about reforms that will force many Brazilians to work for years longer before drawing a pension.

    The strike will also extend a holiday weekend ahead of Labour Day on Monday.

    If successful, the protest would mark Brazil’s first general strike in more than two decades.

    In Brasilia, the capital, authorities boarded up windows of government buildings on Thursday amid fears that protests could result in violent clashes between demonstrators and police.

    Demonstrations were scheduled in other major cities across the Latin American nation of more than 200 million people.

    “It is going to be the biggest strike in the history of Brazil,” said Paulo da Silva, the president of trade union group Forca Sindical.

    Violent protests have occurred repeatedly during the past four years amid political turmoil, Brazil’s worst recession on record, and unprecedented corruption investigations that revealed stunning levels of systematic graft among politicians.

    Nearly a third of Temer’s cabinet and key congressional allies came under investigation in the scandal this month, worsening his dismal approval ratings since taking office in 2016 after the impeachment of ex-President Dilma Rousseff.

    Rousseff’s Workers Party grew out of the labour movement, and her allies have called her removal for breaking budget rules an illegitimate “coup,” contributing to political polarisation in Brazil and hardline union resistance to Temer’s agenda.

    Vagner Freitas, the national president of the Central Workers Union (CUT), Brazil’s biggest labour confederation, said the government’s reforms “leave no room to negotiate.”

    “Temer does not even want to negotiate, he just wants to meet the demands of the businessmen who financed the ‘coup’ precisely to end social security and legalise the exploitation of workers,” Freitas said in a statement.

    A spokesman for Temer rejected the union criticism, saying the government was working to undo the economic damage wrought under the previous Workers Party government, which had the backing of the CUT.

    “The inheritance of that was 13 million unemployed.

    The government is carrying out reforms to change this situation, to create jobs and economic growth,” said spokesman Marcio de Freitas.