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An America-based Nigerian Professor of Humanity and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland, Josephine Abubakar, has berated the management of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) for alleged casualisation of workers and the degrading treatment meted out on them, adding that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu needs to look into it and make necessary amends.
Professor Abubakar also accused other employers of Labour in the private and public sectors for being involved in what she described as man’s inhumanity to man, noting that Section 7(1) of the Labour Act, 2004 provides that no worker should be engaged on probation or temporary employment for more than three months.
In a statement, she said the Federal Government must urgently put mechanisms and policies in place to ensure that employers of Labour conform to internationally acceptable standards of employment, adding that the Ministry of Labour and Employment must also show proactiveness by ascertaining that Nigerians are not exposed to indecent and obnoxious Labour practices.
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The Professor of Humanity also expressed concern about the emotional and psychological effects on the casual workers and contract staff who are arbitrarily dismissed at the whims and caprices of their employers without any benefits.
She said: “Casualisation of workers has assumed a worrisome dimension in private and public sectors with employers capitalising on the high level of unemployment to subject workers to servitude under deplorable working conditions. I am deeply disappointed that government institutions like Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited will also be involved in this serious crime. I am using this opportunity to humbly appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to address this ugly situation and demand explanation from the GMD of NNPCL, Dr. Mele Kyari and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri. Man’s inhumanity to man never fails to shock me.”
The erudite Professor also noted that statistics from the Nigerian Labour Congress indicates that many workers in the telecommunications, oil and gas, mining, steel, banking and insurance industries are on casual employment.
She continued, “As a mother I feel pained each time I read and see this kind of horrible thing happening to Nigerians. I am aware about the agitations by various stakeholders such as the Nigerian Labour Congress, Trade Union Congress, National Assembly and other Non- Governmental Organisations for the Federal Government to develop the political will to enforce compliance with decent and acceptable working environment in Nigeria but nothing serious has happened all these years.
“All well meaning Nigerians are deeply worried about daily reported cases of workers who had worked for several years as casual workers or contract staff without being regularised. The gory details of foreign firms mostly, Indian, Chinese and Lebanese firms physically assaulting and restricting the movement of their workers and exposing them to various industrial hazards should never be swept under the carpet.
“I also read somewhere that the International Labour Organisation recognizes the transition of employees from temporary to permanent employment within three to twelve months of their contract but in one of its reports, Nigeria was grossly indicted on account of frequent termination of contract workers’ employment when they became qualified to be considered for permanent employment. This is sad and I appeal to President Tinubu to change the narrative in tandem with his renewed hope agenda and I pray God will help him achieve this,” she said.
The don further decried the lack of legal status for workers which makes them dispensable at the convenience of their employers, maintaining that the right to decent work is a fundamental right and should be strongly protected.
