President Buhari
The organised labour has called on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to immediately prevail on the governors of Benue, Imo and Nasarawa states to respect Nigeria labour law by putting a stop to wage cut and the arbitrary redeployment of workers to the farms as a way of avoiding full pay.
A NEC member of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and Chairman of the Industrial Global Union, Sub Saharan Africa, Comrade Issa Aremu, made this call in Kaduna on Tuesday, during the nationwide protest by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, against the recent killing of two workers in Nasarawa State by Government House security operatives as well as the increasing violation of workers’ rights in the country.
Comrade Aremu, who is also the General Secretary of National Union of Textile Workers, NUTGTWN, said, “Labour matters are on the exclusive Federal list of 1999 constitution. It is therefore illegal and unconstitutional for these governors as employers of labour to arbitrarily violate the terms of contract of their workers with respect to pay and work schedule.”
It will be recalled that the Governor of Nasarawa state, Tanko Al-Makura, had recently cut workers’ pay by 50 per cent and also threatened to sack striking workers who protest against the 50 per cent wage cut, and replace them with “fresh graduates.”
Comrade Aremu stated, “No colonial governor during the hated British colonialism so verbally casualized the dignity of labour with respect to contracts of employment on pay and tenure as Governor Tanko Al-Makura unacceptably did.”
The labour chieftain expresses solidarity with the State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), to condemn the reduction of normal working days from 5 to 3 days a week in Imo state.
In June, Benue State government had also declared Friday of every week a work free day to enable workers in the state to go and work on their farms.
The state government wrongly claimed the move would aid as many workers as possible to produce enough food to feed their families in the face of the current economic downturn, which has made the regular payment of salaries a major challenge.
Condemning these acts by the governors, Comrade Aremu stated that the 1999 Constitution under which the governors swore the oath of office explicitly guarantees the sanctity of public service at both Federal and state levels with respect to adequate security of tenure, hours of work, health and safety, adequate remunerations and pensions.
He explained that Section 209 of the Constitution guarantees decent work of the civil servants in the public service of a state and does not subject it to the whims of executive governors.
The labour chieftain called on the Head of Service of the federation as well as heads of service of the 36 states to speak out in defense of the rights of public servants against serial attacks of some states’ governors.
He noted, “It is bad governance on the part of most governors to shift the burden of declining revenue on their workforce while still maintaining the primitive huge cost of executive overhead. Public servants are expected to deliver public service with respect to education and health.
“To therefore transform civil servants into overnight farmers without fresh letters of appointments as part of some dubious “cost-saving measures” is to proclaim end of public work and public service by the governors,” he stated.
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