The Federal Government has pledged to revive the National Labour Advisory Council as a way of entrenching international best labour practices in Nigeria.
The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr Chris Ngige made this disclosure while speaking with journalists in Abuja on Tuesday.
He observed that it was imperative to revive the council in order to ensure International Labour Organisation, ILO, best practices in the country.
According to him, “The National Labour Advisory Council is a very important organ of the tripartite committee arrangement that we have in the labour management.
“The council will help us to review the labour laws in the country and ensure international best practices.
“So this ministry under my leadership will make sure that we will revive the council.
The minister, who noted that part of the reason why the council was not performing optimally was due to lack of funds, stressed that the meeting of the advisory council cost between N7 million and N10 million.
He assured that a tripartite committee meeting would be held to determine on how to revive the council at an affordable cost.
“The National Labour Advisory Council is important because it is the equivalent of the public hearing which they do at the National Assembly,” he stated, adding that the revival of the council would afford the tripartite committee opportunity to fashion out ways to solve some problems like casualization and contract staffing.
Ngige, while noting that there are laws guiding casualization and contract staffing, stressed that these laws are being abused by employers.
“As long as we are here, we cannot permit indecent jobs and this ministry must protect Nigerians irrespective of where they come from.
“To that extent we are going to enforce the law and that is why we have to revive the Inspectorate Department and the Industrial Relations Department.
“They have to work together now and see how we can tackle and improve on this issue because a lot of companies are now into casualisation,” Ngige said.
Comments