Group Urges Govt To Embrace Organised Labour As Partners For Progress

The National Policy Review and Futureview Team (NPRFT) of The Big Tent coalition for Obi-Datti campaign has restated the need for governments at all levels to adopt a productive philosophy towards organised labour through concrete recognition of labour as partners for progress.

At its Policy Review session during the week, convener of the Big Tent, Professor Pat Utomi noted that if government philosophy sees labour as an enemy, it will have more challenges in getting things done and also noted that Germany, one of the most successful capitalist countries in the world is a good example which recognises and gives premium consideration to labour in the way that work is organised

He regretted that the future has been challenged by having the nation’s university system shut down for 8 months, for which all persons of goodwill “must be able to apportion blame for this, and maybe if necessary, say that eventually, wisdom prevailed and we got the presidency to weigh in but that this should have been done six months ago.”

The nascent Policy team whose mandate is to enhance the functioning of Democratic Institutions, drive an issues-based campaign to liberate Nigeria in 2023 and begin to restore legitimacy to the government, hopes that the frenzied engagement of the federal government with ASUU over the last few days will lead to satisfying resolution of the current crisis, beyond ASUU suspending the strike, which caused the children of ordinary Nigerians to be out of the classroom for eight months. The team hopes that this is not another campaign gimmick from an APC-led government that does not respect agreements it willingly enters into.

NPRFT also noted that the disruption of the future of a significant section of our youths would have been avoided if the Federal Government had been sensitive to the sensibilities of workers and acted proactively because the university unions gave the statutorily required notices in furtherance of a trade dispute in compliance with the Trade Dispute Act but the APC-led government, “in its usual lackadaisical attitude to issues of national importance ignored the lecturers until weeks after they had commenced industrial action before attempting a reluctant engagement with the striking lecturers.”

“We also note that even when the Professor Briggs’s negotiation committee set up, reached and signed an agreement with the striking lecturers, the APC government rejected its own agreement forcing the lecturers to dig in. To worsen matters, the APC federal government unconscionably invoked the ‘no work no pay’ policy over a strike the government induced by flagrantly breaching an agreement that was reached in 2009. This is certainly against a pillar of natural justice which abhors persons being judges in their own causes.

“That our universities have been shut down cumulatively for a whopping 614 days over the seven and half years of Buhari’s administration is not only regrettable but a sad commentary on the disdain in which the APC federal government holds both education and workers generally. A situation where a government contemptuously regards workers as adversaries rather than partners for progress cannot but produce the kind of disruptive outcomes we have had in our industrial relations in the last seven and half years.

“Nigerians, therefore, expect an OBIDATTI-led government to adopt a cooperative system, akin to the German model of industrial relations that accords workers the status of partners in collective management to propel production in an enhanced and harmonious industrial environment.

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“To tame the issue of rancorous trade disputes, we recommend that an OBIDATTI government as a matter of policy option should, within six months in office begin a reform process of the industrial relations space to, among other things, engage in stakeholders parley with a view to interrogating the following:

1. Ensuring absolute fidelity in the implementation of Collective Bargaining Agreements.

2. Review the enabling act of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria with a view to making it more social partner-friendly and ensuring faster dispensation of justice to boost economic activities.

3. Increase the length of notice required under the Trade Disputes Act to 30 days (from 14 days) in furtherance of trade disputes by industrial unions to allow parties time for more meaningful engagement and possible resolution within the notice period.

“4. Ensure that the Minister of Labour plays the role of an impartial regulator and arbiter in industrial relations to increase confidence among social partners.

“Also, as a matter of urgency, an OBIDATTI Presidency should implement the universal philosophy and practice of autonomy for tertiary educational institutions in addition to convoking an all stakeholders’ summit to plot a road map to re-evaluate our education system with a view to making it competitive and impactful.”