By Obioma C. Appolos
The Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) has threatened to withdraw the services of its members working in Nigeria offices of West Africans Examination Council (WAEC) over unfair labour practice.
The General Secretary of NASU, Peters Adeyemi, in a statement made available to journalists in Abuja, hinted that the action, which is slated to kickoff on the October 14th 2019 became necessary as the union’s efforts through conventional means to amicably settle the issue was treated lackadaisically by the management of WAEC.
Listed among the issues leading to the industrial crisis are: review of scheme of service need to create more Establishment for NASU members, unfair termination of appointment of Comrade Waziri Erinus, refusal of the management to implement the policy on ex-gratia, dichotomy of payment allowance to members Serving Council’s Meetings, irregular recruitment of Examination Officers and incessant and unwarranted query to some union’s officers.
Furthermore, Adeyemi noted that though the union headquarters is reliably informed that work on re-review of scheme of service has reached appreciable level, the management’s reluctance to harmonise the grey areas is delaying its approval and operation.
“In view of the importance of scheme of service in daily administration, it is highly imperative that the Head National Office (HNO), not only talk the talk but also walk the walk as he promised in one of the meetings held with NASU executive branch committee by immediately setting up a committee of management and NASU to work on the grey areas and come up with scheme of service that meets international standard and yearning of staff.” He added.
Specially, NASU stated that the review of scheme of service has been lingering since the year 2013 till date without any positive resolution despite the union’s favourable disposition to collective bargaining with the WAEC management on the matter.
It also described the level of stagnation of officers in the Council as worrisome, said the situation is a clear case of injustice on the affected staff.
His words, “The truth of the matter is that the affected staffers are due for promotions and are also qualified but they are denied. I therefore call for the creation of additional Establishments to take care of the affected staff in the spirit of fairness and equity.”
On the termination of the appointment of Waziri Erinus, Adeyemi said: “Let me reiterate here that NASU believes in justice and fair play; it is on this premise that I demand that the termination of appointment of Comrade Waziri S. Erinus should be revisited. The fact remains that the panel constituted to try him was defective because NASU was not represented in the panel to defend his interest.”
On WAEC decision to neglect to implement the policy on ex-gratia.
“The union believes that it is improper for the payment to be stopped midway as there is no justification to change the goal post in the middle of a game. The stoppage is a gimmick from the management to polarise the workers in the council. Therefore, those who were schemed out of the payment should be paid without delay,” Adeyemi said.
Also on dichotomy of payment allowance to members serving council’s meetings, said “The dichotomy in payment of allowances to staff serving council’s meetings and conduct of examinations offshore is a great injustice which should be stopped as there is no justification for such pernicious action as what is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and as such equality and fairness should be maintained in the payment of allowances to those involved in such crucial and important assignments.”
Onward, NASU said the management should as a matter of policy look inward in the employment of Examination Officers as some staff are already trained and have qualification to assume such position instead of employment of fresh hands that need to be trained in order to fit into the system, as this increases productivity and reduces cost of training of retraining of new recruits.
“I therefore express concerns about the nonchalance of WAEC management in their treatment of these important lingering issues, which could put the global campaign for decent work policy and wellbeing of workers in WAEC Nigeria in jeopardy.
“It is on this premise that your management is hereby given a period of 21 days from the date hereon to positively resolve all the issues listed above, failing which the union will have no other option than to direct our members in WAEC throughout Nigeria to proceed on total strike by Monday, 14th October 2019.”
Ngige reiterates powers of Labour Ministry to registering, regrouping Unions
By Appolos Christian
The Minister of Labour and Employment Sen. Chris Ngige, has emphasized the constitutional responsibility of his ministry in regards to registering new and regrouping labour unions, saying that the Ministry will exercise its functions when the need arises.
Ngige stated this in response to a concern presented to him by the president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Comarde Ayuba Wabba, who led a delegation of NLC leadership on a solidarity visit to him on his reappointment as the minister of labour and employment.
Wabba, in his remarks expressed concern that some unrecognized groups of people came to him portraying themselves to be registered unions but ran away when he asked them to bring their members and certificates of registration. He therefore urged the minister to ensure that the ministry will not register every Dick and Tom that come in the name of unionizing, especially when the constitution is against such.
Responding to NLC president’s prayers which includes the future of work (decent jobs), casualization of workers in private sector, institutionalization of social dialogue forum for industrial harmony and peace, registration of new unions and the new minimum wage, Ngige said that neither him nor the ministry has registered such persons, though he had earlier proposed to register a group of barbers that came to him seeking to be registered as employers’ association.
However , he categorically stated that it is within the constitutional powers of the Ministry and part of its statutory function to register or regroup ‘amorphous’ unions.
“We are not oblivious of that fact that the laws of the land permits this ministry to exercise some elastic movement, because nothing is static in life. You will not say that new unions will not come up, they must come. Because there are going to be new unionisation in places, especially those who didn’t want to unionise before against the conventions.
“So once those people unionise and they are not in a trade or cadre that are unionised before, we register them. It is our function to do so, it is within our powers. It is also within our powers to regroup. If a union is amorphous. I belong to a union, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners as a civil servant. So we will exercise our functions.”
On role of the Advisory Council on labour matters which NLC is a member, the Minister said, “The council cannot take over the powers and functions of the Ministry of labour and employment or the Minister, no, it is not possible.
“The law of the country doesn’t say that. We will only bring our functions to you for advice at the national level of advisory council. And We will bring it there, and we look at it and we tell you what we are doing. But we must be on the part of the law. Due process, that is what we are after. The council it is a tripartite council and cannot strip us off our right.”
Minimum wage issues will be sorted our soonest – Ngige
By Appolos Christian
The Minister of Labour and Employment Sen. Chris Ngige, has said that the federal government is poised to quickly resolve all issues that are delaying the effective implementation of the new minimum wage.
He stated that government is carefully handling the consequential adjustment issue of the new wage rate being the bane of the delay, and explained that it is necessary that government comprehensively consider the adjustments in line with the economic realities of the country and agree with workers, to avoid running into deep waters when it is time for payment.
A delegation of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) led by its president Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who were on a courtesy visit to the Minister on his re-appointment as the minister of labour, had in their earlier remarks asked the Minister to look into the issue of the consequential adjustment of the new ‘minimum wage negotiation committee that was broken down due to a disagreement between government and workers.
Wabba, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, pledged NLC’s cooperation in working with the Minister going forward, he however, entreated him to take a result oriented actions on burning issues such as the future of work (decent jobs), casualization of workers in private sector, institutionalization of social dialogue forum in view to industrial harmony and peace, registration of new unions and of course the new minimum wage.
In his response, Ngige said; “The issue of the new national minimum wage will be sorted out for the other cadre (level 7 upward) and I am very hopeful it will be as soon as possible.
“it is unfortunate that negotiations was deadlocked from levels 7 till 17, and issues became on what percentage or slides that they should use on the sliding scale, the good thing is that we are going to discuss and negotiate it. It is a Collective Bargaining Arrangement (CBA), if we talk strictly about the minimum wage, it is already being implemented, because the minimum wage is for the person on the lower rung of the ladder.
“Before I got into this meeting, I tried to look for the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, because the logical thing for us to do since we have all agreed is to reconstitute our own representation, they have to hand over to us, wherever they stopped.
“Luckily, the President has also put in place a new committee, called Presidential Committee on Salaries (PCS), The former head of service reported to us on progress. It is important that we advise them that if they keep on piling debts, the federal government might go into problem of payments, the state governments that have always not been regular with payments will have problem.
“The best thing to do is for them to send down this to the state and show the example by paying. The state government as at today are duty bound, and they now have the template to pay level 1-6, and they are plenty, when we reconstitute our committee, I do not see us not agreeing, we can disagree, but we will eventually agree.
“I am one of those who believe that a workman is due his wages, if you work, in a vineyard, you will eat from that vineyard, and you will eat all of the fruits that are In the vineyard. So It is unfortunate that the consequential adjustment negotiation was deadlocked over the issue of what percentage to pay the higher cadre, but the important thing is that we will reconvene and negotiate and come to agreement.
“So there must be a consequential movement and government is not averse to doing the consequential movement. What we are saying is that we should try for all parties to agree that the economy is in trouble and therefore we have to cut our coat according to our clothe. We are trying to balance the issues and we must balance them so that we don’t run into issues with the laws of the land.
“The unions of NLC and TUC have not been involved, but when we come back, we will involved you so that we can have a speedy movement in this respect.”
