The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, has asked workers to disregard the call by Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for a one-day national protest on Monday.
Ngige made the call in a statement issued by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Nwachukwu Obidewe, in Abuja on Friday, saying the directive by the NLC president, Mr Ayuba Waba, that workers should protest on Monday, May 13, 2019, was unlawful.
“The calling out of workers on a flimsy and selfish excuse of non-inauguration of the board of the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) with Comrade Frank Kokori as the chairman did not constitute a trade dispute as contained in the Labour Act.
“The issue in question is political. It is about the exclusive right of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to make an appointment. This is clearly outside the purview of the Trade Union and Trade Disputes Act; hence the imperative for workers to go about their normal businesses.
“It is important to state here that every worker is supposed to put in eight hours of work per day for five days in a week in line with the ILO Convention. Therefore, using the office hours for such protest without the approval of the employers is unlawful,” he said.
Ngige said he was already taking necessary legal action regarding the labour leader’s threat.
The minister and labour leaders had been quarrelling over the appointment of Kokori, a labour leader, as chairman of NSITF board, while labour insisted that Kokori must chair the board based on an earlier announcement, but the minister thinks otherwise.
The disagreement caused labour leaders to invade the residence of the minister on Wednesday.
