The federal government’s recent call on employers of labour to provide decent conditions for their employees, devoid of exploitation and other negative conditions will, to a large extent, halt the plight of the averaged worker which is becoming a phenomenon in the country. The gesture will also boost national productivity and wealth creation.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, made the call in Abuja last week when executives of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) led by Comrade Osakpamwan Eriyo visited him.
He charged the association to tailor its employment conditions on the provisions of the Decent Work Agenda of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
The minister also encouraged the association to do a proper documentation of its employees by creating a data base, adding that it would simplify their recruitment process, as well as assist government in managing security in the country.
Speaking earlier, the National President of RTEAN, Comrade Osakpamwan Eriyo, pledged the continued support of the association to government.
Decent work sums up the aspirations of people in their working lives. It involves opportunities for work that is productive and delivers a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
It is instructive that productive employment and decent work are key elements to achieving a fair globalization and poverty reduction. The ILO has developed an agenda for the community of work looking at job creation, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue, with gender equality as a crosscutting objective.
There has been an increased urgency among international policy-makers, particularly in the wake of the global financial and economic crisis of 2008, to deliver quality jobs along with social protection and respect for rights at work to achieve sustainable, inclusive economic growth, and eliminate poverty.
During the UN General Assembly in September 2015, decent work and the four pillars of the Decent Work Agenda – employment creation, social protection, rights at work, and social dialogue – became integral elements of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Goal 8 of the 2030 Agenda calls for the promotion of sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work, and will be a key area of engagement for the ILO and its constituents. Furthermore, key aspects of decent work are widely embedded in the targets of many of the other 16 goals of the UN’s new development vision.
Leaders’ statements and action plans of the G20, G7, EU, African Union and other multilateral and regional bodies also confirm the significance of decent work to crisis recovery and sustainable development.
Unfortunately, the Nigerian workers, especially those in the private sector and state governments’ employment, have over the years grappled with harsh and unfavourable work conditions including several months of unpayed salaries. The case of some state governments is even more scandalous given the fact that they misappropriated the three tranches of the federal government’s bail-out funds to enable them pay the backlog of salaries owed their workers.
In October last year the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) picketed many companies, which allegedly have casual workers, and banned their workers from joining unions of their choice. Among those affected were telecommunications giant MTN, CHI Nigeria Limited, Orange Group, Namoh Nigeria Limited, Consolidated Business Holdings, and Abuja Environmental Protection Board.
NLC President Ayuba Wabba said the picketing was necessary as the companies, despite repeated warnings and visitations by labour leadership, refused to stop their anti-workers’ activities such as the violation of workers’ right and casualisation.
The NLC said picketing is inevitable as employers engage in casualisation, contrary to the laws on employment, international labour and human rights conventions, and the basic principles of decent work signed by member nations of the International Labour Organisation (ILO); and, particularly, UN Sustainable Development Goals on the right and welfare of workers.
The union demanded that employers should stop workers’ casualisation, pay them living wages, and allow them to form and belong to trade unions of their choice in compliance with the labour laws and the ILO Convention 87.
Others are: “Integrate these workers and their unions in your internal collective bargaining machinery in all work places in compliance with ILO Convention 98 and respect of all national laws and international labour conventions on the rights of workers.”
That precarious or casual work which is the work done by workers in both public and private sectors under terrible conditions of low pay, delayed payment, long hours of work without compensation, and general work insecurity still exist in Nigeria is reprehensible and indeed condemnable.
Consequently, we urge the federal government to go beyond rhetorics and mere moral persuasion by enforcing all relevant municipal labour laws and international conventions on the rights of the workers. We also appeal to the President Muhammadu Buhari government to expedite action on the enactment of the new National Minimum Wage Act which became due since 2015.
