Ugo Aliogo and Oluchi Chibuzor
The Trade Union Congress (TUC)of Nigeria, Lagos Council, has said it condemned the antithetical labour practises deployed by the private sector in the state.
This, practices according to them includes reported and unreported cases of victimization, sexual harassment, child/forced labour, threats, bullying, arbitrary disengagements, intimidations, casualisations, witch-hunting and repression of workers and labour leaders.
TUC Lagos Council stated this in a communiqué signed by its Chairman, Gbenga Ekundayo and Secretary, Abiodun Aladetan, after 2021 training organised by the leadership of the TUC Lagos State Council, held recently with the theme: ‘Decent Work and Employment Relations: The Impact for A Smart City’.
They said after a careful analysis of the theme, the following observations and decisions were made.
“The workshop brought to the attention of all participants the fact that the world of work is presently under attack and the Nigeria Labour Law now on trial due to the high reported cases of abuse of workers right in work places particularly since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.“
Hence, the need for labour leaders to fight for workers rights at all times.
“The workshop noted the need for employers and labour leaders to promote decent work by ensuring that adequate measures and policies are put in place to encourage social integration, create a sense of personal worth and provide a measure of quality of life for the workers in line with International Labour Organisation Convention 87(1948),98(1949) 111(1958)105(1957) etc.
“The workshop condemned in strong terms all forms of indecent work deployed by employers under the guise of casualisation, outsourcing, ad-hoc staffing, slavery, child labour, arbitrary disengagement, etc which are antithetical to the tenets of decent work as guaranteed by several labour legislations,” the communiqué stated.”
However, the labour group, warned employers particularly those in the private sector that the reported and unreported cases of victimisation, sexual harassment, child/forced labour, threats, bullying, arbitrary disengagements, intimidations, casualisations, witch-hunting and repression of workers and labour leaders in the State must stop
“Failing which the Trade Union in Lagos State will not hesitate to deploy all legitimate instrumentalities of law to resist and to rescue its members from the clutches of workplace evils, neoliberal vultures and vulgarities of the spineless oppressive employers that operates in Lagos State,” they said.
Conclusively, they stressed the need for both employers of Labour and Union leaders to choose negotiations and dialogue at all times, emphasising that both parties must not allow lingering labour issues to snowball into industrial actions due to the negative impact it will have on the fragile economy of the country.
