By Obioma C. Appolos
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone Mr Dennis Zulu, has said that the world labour body is looking for ways to ensuring that workers across the world get maximum benefit from their work, and also not denied their rights by employers.
While he stressed that the growing level of technological advancement in the world is a threat to industrial harmony in the world of work across the globe, he noted that “ILO is conscious of the fact that with the advancement in technology, some workers may have to work from home, while others may lose their jobs as the banking sector for example is fast replacing some workers with ATM and internet banking.”
Mr Zulu, who said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja recently, added that the issue of technology replacing workers is a reality because it is already happening in most parts of the world.
“One of the things that we are saying which will be very evident in the future is that the relationship that we know today between an employer and employee will changed because of technology, demographic trends, and other development indices, like people working from home.
“So the question is how do we respond to those issues, in terms of the protection of workers right? If you are a worker working from home with no direct interaction with the employer, how do we ensure that either party is happy with the relationship?
“We really have to look forward and prepare ourselves for the changes that would happen. As you see already, in a number of countries, banks are laying off employees because of technology. We have ATM and you can do online banking.
“How do we support member states to ensure that these workers who loss their jobs get their rights? How do we ensure that we prepare the young ones to acquiring education and skills that will equipped them for the future of work?
“So as the world of work revolve, we can only do much in ensuring that the four strategies which made up decent work are met.” Zulu said.
Furthermore, he explained that the four strategies for decent work are: protection of rights, ensuring equitable access to employment opportunities for both men and women, ensuring that social protection are available to all workers, and lastly and very importantly, the concept of social dialogue in the discussion between employees and employers as far they agreed to what sort of relationships that they should have.
“Like in many other countries, it is a huge task and it will take just the ILO, it social partners in Nigeria and the government to achieved a perfect world of work in Nigeria. But we can only strive to do as much as we can. Like I said it is a growing problem, especially with the growing rate of unemployment, child labour problem and in some cases, increased levels of discrimination of persons with disabilities, women worker, among others.
“We need to work on those specific issues if we are going to ensure that we meet our aspirations and this can only be done collectively. We need to look at the law for instance. You know that in Nigeria, law making takes a bit of time. I think it is important to work towards new legislation that will actually reflect the times in bringing into bear the new trends in the world of work because only then can we guarantee the protection of workers right in the country.
“That is the only way we also can guarantee that the interest of the employers in the private sector is also protected.”
