WORKERS DAY 2021: FG PLEDGES FAIR LABOUR PRACTICES
Oru Leonard
The Federal Government of Nigeria has pledged to continue entrenching fair Labour practices and promoting Decent Work Agenda in the nation’s world of work.
The President, Muhammadu Buhari, made this pledge in his address to Nigerian workers during the 2021 May Day celebration held at Eagle Square, Abuja.
The theme for this year’s May Day celebration is “COVID-19 Pandemic, Social and Economic Crisis: Challenges for Decent Jobs, Social Protection and People’s Welfare”.
Buhari, who was represented by Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, said that in spite of the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Government remained committed to the maintenance of decent work agenda, which is also a necessary tool for national economic growth.
The President said, “Fair labour practices must be the norm in our world of work,” and emphasised that “decent jobs in our workplaces remain a goal for this administration.”
He described “decent jobs in the workplaces” as reflecting all the goodness in labour administration, and involved opportunities for productive work and fair income, social protection, social dialogue, gender parity and equality, workplace cooperation and cohesion, among others.
According to Buhari, “Irrespective of the hitches caused by the pandemic in our efforts and journey to attain the United Nations’ 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the African Union 2063 Agenda with its embodied seven African aspirations, we Nigerians are committed to inclusive and sustainable development anchored by the decent work agenda to initiate and maintain economic growth.”
He said that in recognition of the importance of decent jobs in the promotion of sustained and inclusive economic growth, full and productive employment, the Federal Government “had appealed and continues to appeal to all employers of labour to jettison job reduction and is also ensuring poverty alleviation through various safety net programmes to cushion the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
He noted that as part of securing decent jobs and promoting social protection and people’s welfare, Government would look at the relevant conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) through the newly inaugurated National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC), to extract and ratify what we can adopt to our national practice and environment such as Convention No. 102 on Social Security (Minimum Standards).”
The President said that while awaiting the formalisation of the social protection network and people’s welfare, the Federal Government had put in place some socio-economic policies to alleviate poverty.
These policies, which are majorly for building small and medium scale businesses, are essentially aimed at supporting the labour force, he said.
The programmes include, but not limited to “the expansion of the Conditional Cash Transfer for the vulnerable poor from 2.6 million households (13 million persons) to 7.6 million households (about 32 million persons), and COVID-19 Rapid Response Register (RRR) for urban poor which now has 4.8 million households (20 million persons), which also include urban poor/working class.”
There are also the Entrepreneur Support Programme, Artisan Support Fund, Payroll Support Fund for small scale businesses, and Guaranteed Off-take Stimulus Scheme, National Youth Investment Fund (NYIF) for young entrepreneurs of 75 Billion Naira for three years, among others.
Buhari further stated that the Federal Government intended to expand the N-Power programme from the present 500,000 to one million persons and the Central Bank of Nigeria had activated her programme in Agriculture and Manufacturing.
Mr President enjoined the Nigerian workers let to continue to work together with the Government for the good of the country.
Also speaking, the Minister for Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, commended the social partners in nigeria for cooperating with the Government to minimise the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ngige, represented by Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, SAN, noted that jobs were not lost on the anticipated scale and industrial actions were minimal.
He applauded the social partners, particularly workers’ representatives, for embracing social dialogue to reach a new Social Pact in order to tackle the emerging issues due to the pandemic and “forge a way forward for the good of our socio-economic.”
The Minister stated that the Palliative Committee, which the Federal Government established with the Two Federations of Trade Unions to discuss issues arising from the negative economic impact of the pandemic on the nation, had been working to put together palliatives and other safety nets to augment the fallen income of the Nigerian populace during the pandemic, especially in the informal economy.
He said that Government has made a lot of effort to address the issues of unilateral pay cuts, reduced working hours, compulsory leave with or without pay, as well as layoffs and declaration of redundancy in the banking sector.
The Minister stated that these efforts of Government were geared towards providing Social protection for workers and protecting the nation’s Decent Work Agenda by ensuring that jobs were not jettisoned in the stride to survive the pandemic.
He stated that Government had kept its own part of the bargains reached at various fora in an attempt to tackle social and labour problems accompanying the pandemic.
Ngige also recalled that in April 2021, the President approved the consequential adjustment in pensions of retirees under the Defined Benefit Scheme.
Charles Akpan
Deputy Director/Head (Press and Public Relations)
1st May, 2021
1&2. The Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige; Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo; Labour Leaders at the podium inspecting the march past of Nigerian Workers during the 2021 workers day in Abuja
3. The Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige (4th right); Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo (3rd left); NLC President, Comr. Ayuba Wabba (3rd right); Comr. Kadiri Olaleye (2nd left); Representative of SGF (2nd right), at the 2021 workers day in Abuja
