The President of the new labour centre Joe Ajaero speaks on issues on concerning workers

Joe Ajaero is the President of the United Labour Congress, that was formed following the issues surrounding the last NLC elections. He speaks on issues concerning workers in Nigeria

ILO statement on conflicts, crisis: We don’t need a statement from the ILO to stop the carnage in the North-East in form of Boko Haram and insurgency. What we need is a Nigeria solution to Nigeria problem. We believe since President Muhammadu Buhari came into power, you can see a reasonable amount of seriousness in combating insurgency.

But it has left a lot of social challenges such as migration issues. There are a lot of destitute that are there to be fed. People have lost their jobs in the cause of the carnage. Apart from that , the issue of jobs insecurity should be   paramount in all our agitations.  If you employed 1,000 new workers and you sacked 5,000, it does not make sense.

The level of jobs insecurity in Nigeria is alarming especially from the multinationals who are importing Indian and Chinese to take over Nigerian jobs in the oil and gas, electricity, telecommunication among others.

Besides that, there are issue of precarious work because most jobs are being casualised by multinationals and other private employers. If you said you are creating employment and such employment is not decent, we should bring this matter to the attention of ILO.

We should let the ILO know that the jobs they are creating in Nigeria are the type that people are using umbrella to sell recharge cards. We should pay attention    to decent jobs and sustenance    of the jobs that are in existence.

Social dialogue:   We believe in social dialogue and Nigeria preaches it especially at the government circle. Most often, you notice that it is practiced in the breach.

If you have a tripod that two legs are on one  side, then you have to pity the other side. In this tripod, especially in case of Nigeria, both the employers and government are usually on one side. In fact, the two are employers which has made the other leg, which is labour,  to be weak .

Government is an employer as well as a regulator. Employers most times, call the shot. In such a situation, you can’t say the tripod is standing effectively. In the private sector, you see the dictatorship of employers.  When they hire, they may decide not to pay. They don’t even go into collective bargaining and no condition of service. In such a scenario,    you can’t say social dialogue exists.

In some states it is the same thing. Governors think they can hire and fire at will. There is no social dialogue in such areas. We have been preaching it, there is need to institutionalise and internalise it in our ways of life.

Migration: You know  the Nigerian economy is not doing well. There is high level of unemployment. You see high turnout of graduates looking for jobs which they cannot get. After a long search, they may decide  to go other areas which lead to migration.

Even within the Nigerian space, if you listen to what is happening, you hear some people asking others to leave their areas. You hear about indigenisation.  So, even if there are jobs in state A and there no jobs in state B, it is not expected that you use the available manpower in state A to solve the problem in state B.

All these issues, including the hostile environment such as  kidnapping or insurgency make people to leave their places to go to other places.

There must be a conscious plan by the state to check the insecurity and unemployment issues. There are economies in the world that provide social safety nets like unemployment benefits that when you finish school, you will get certain stipends until you get a job. There are economies that provide for old men benefits, provide for health services for the elderly. So, these pressures make people to move from one place to the other in search of greener pasture. So, migration is mainly because of economic issues. So, if we addressed our economic issues, I think  issue of migration will be addressed. There was a time when Nigerians were not travelling out of the country, especially when Yakubu Gowon said Nigeria problem was not money, but how to spend it. We had money, but we didn’t know how to manage it. So, as far as there is poverty and unemployment, insurgency and kidnapping, people are bound to leave their places of abode to other places. Now that there are discriminatory employment policies and educational policies, this movement will continue to occur. We must go back to the Nigerian federation to ask how to address this issue. That is why we said we must get a Nigerian solution to Nigerian problem.

Labour unity:  We know  there is no war in the unions. We also know that there is no one way of doing things. We know that even within families, people have different ideologies. The husband can be in one party and the wife in another. That is not crisis and that is not war. If you knew when there was crisis in the Labour movement, you would realise what is happening is a child play. Even what you are referring to, either in the NLC or TUC, we have not heard or seen somebody slaps another or uses unprintable words. But we are aware that we decided to do things differently to take care of people that are with us. We understand that we should not be going to civil service union to do certain things if we are not invited. That is to tell you that we recognize departmentalisation in the course of our jobs. We want to tell you that there is peace in terms of what is happening. Even in those days when government took over NLC, we came up with joint action committees to take actions. If we have challenges now, we can still come together on issues that affect the workers.

ULC registration: We are  happy that you called it a process and the process goes on. The TUC had 27 years before it was registered. That was a process and member were resilient. In fact they had to change names several times. This is a process we started in December and we want to be peaceful about it. Between December and now is just less than seven months. We have expressed anxiety on the delay.

Avoiding provocation

The last correspondence we got before coming to ILO was that the process was still in place. We don’t think that we should now come with threat. Let me tell you that the ULC has what it takes to demand its registration  within 48 hours  and get it. But it would mean that we are threatening the establishment.

So, we will allow the process to take its course so that nobody will accuse us of being registered through the back door. That is what we have done, being patient as we have been. That is why we are trying to avoid provocation. We realize that we have to bend to the rules, do what we are asked to do and allow them to do their job even when it is going beyond time expected. So, patience is a virtue that we must all learn to imbibe.

Unpaid salaries: It is always  sad when you hear workers in the public sector are not being paid including the pensioners who are being owed for one year or more in some cases. You will ask if there are unions in these places to compel governors to pay workers their salaries. It is worse that after Paris Club refunds,    we are still talking about non-payment of salaries and pensions. Let me say that ULC is worried about it. You will recall that  in some states, we were able to push for the payment of salaries. We are ready to collaborate with NLC and TUC to see how to move the struggle forward and to also ensure that the affected workers and pensioners who had worked    so hard for their benefits, are paid their salaries.

Never the less, at the sectorial level, the ULC cannot move into any sector if we are not invited because there is demarcation in union practice. If a state is controlled by public sector union, say the civil service union, until the union writes you and tells you the problems it is facing, you do not force yourself there. ULC as a body cannot go  and picket any company which workers are affiliated to it unless such workers through their union write to the ULC complaining about  such issue . Also, we will not delve into factory where the TUC or the NLC is taking action without NLC or TUC inviting ULC to such place.

Take home from ILO: That was why I said we need Nigeria solution to Nigeria problems. The ILO looks at global standards which you discover we are not implementing in Nigeria. If you recall even at the level of Industrial, we organised some programmers such as road shows to look at those employers who are involved in these precarious jobs and fight them. But those who regulate labour matters in Nigerians seem to be sleeping. For example, these days we do not have labour inspectors as we used to that go to the factories to ensure that standards were complied with.

“Entrepreneurs just set up companies without labour inspectors going there to ensure that standards are complied with. So, the ministry of labour should intensify effort by engaging labour inspectors so that all the standards are complied with before people take up jobs. Employers are taking advantage of the unemployment situation to advertise for jobs where millions of people will apply for such jobs and they would then use the opportunity to exploit workers as they are not be ready to comply with minimum standard including wage and safety standards. Especially in the banking sector, the level of casualisation is alarming. So, all hands must be on deck to arrest this challenge.

Culled from The Vanguard