Covid-19: Labour to Tackle Employers over Job Losses, Unpaid Salaries

Covid-19: Labour to Tackle Employers over Job Losses, Unpaid Salaries

By Onyebuchi Ezigbo

The organised labour has said it has started mobilising for action against state governments and other employers of labour that are using the current Covid-19 pandemic as a ploy to sack workers and undermine their rights.

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayuba Wabba, said that organised labour is worried by the trend whereby workers were being used as scapegoat for the economic challenges brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja, shortly before the commencement of the Central Working Committee meeting of the NLC on Wednesday, Wabba said that labour and its allies will tackle any infraction on workers rights.

“We are having this meeting at a time when workers are going through various challenges. We expect to make far reaching pronouncements on how we are going to engage employers of labour that have tried to undermine the fundamental rights of workers, especially state governments. You remember we had written to two state governors on the issue, while one had responded, the other has not.

“We are going to tackle them headlong because we believe that people must respect the rule of law, especially those in authority. We cannot fold our hands and people undermine our laws and rights of workers and we continue to lament.

“In proceeding with this action, we thought that we should consult with our organs so that we will decide how to deal with the fundamental issues affecting Nigerian workers at the moment,” he said.

Wabba said that labour movement had recently intervened in disputes in the aviation sector, banking sector, manufacturing industry and others that have tried to sack workers and trampled on their rights in the guise of responding to challenges of Covid-19 without recourse to due process of law and collective dialogue.

The NLC president said that Wednesday’s CWC meeting will afford the central labour organization the opportunity to prioritise its engagements and to decode areas to tackle first.

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