In praise of decent work

AYoruba proverb has it that poverty is an antidote against poverty. But that is if the work is Decent. Yesterday Sunday October 7 was a global day of mass action for Decent Work, a day of mass action against precarious work as declared by the International Labour Organization (ILO).

Today, affiliate unions of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) organize a number of actions against precarious work. Precarious or casual work is the work done by workers in both public and private sectors under terrible conditions of low pay, delayed payment, long hours of work without compensation, and general work insecurity. Precarious work is becoming norm in most workplaces in Nigeria with most employers taking advantage of mass unemployment to violate workers’ rights. More and more precarious workers are unable to realize their fundamental rights at work and enjoy essential social rights. As we have seen in recent times with serial tragedies involving applicants and extortion of applicants in some public and private service agencies, recruitment of workforce is also getting precarious in Nigeria. Most affected are women and young workers in general.

In many commercial banks and some telecom companies for instance precarious work takes the form of agency work in which a labour contractor supplies workers to the banks but the workers still remain the employees of the contractor. These workers are known as contract workers or temporary workers. Most banks today are mere modern day slave trade terminals reminiscent of the despicable trans-Atlantic slave trade of 15th century in which workers are paid slave wages. Only lucky workers ever get elevated to the permanent status in most banks and some telecommunications.

The defining characteristic of casual labour is insecurity, lack of union and all forms of maltreatment. Many media houses in Nigeria are notorious homes of casual labourers with working journalists grossly underpaid and in many instances unpaid at all drawing on cheap labour of youth corpers and interns. In many local governments and even Federal departments, child labour is feasible with outsourced staff some receiving as small as N3000 a month. There are “auxiliary workers” at the health centres just as there are “auxiliary teachers” in hundreds of thousands of “schools”.

“Auxiliary” workers are nothing but casual workers. Even churches and mosques which should know what Almighty God ordained with respect to dignity of labour offer their workers devilish dirty jobs and pay them peanuts. Many pensioners earn less than N10,000 and statutory minimum wage of N18,000 in the face of massive currency devaluation and inflation. High sounding “entrepreneurship schemes” being paraded at the state and federal levels supported by donor agencies are nothing but euphemisms for casualisation. Major industries with well-known brands run by respectable men and women with advertised Corporate Social Responsibility (CSRs) practice outsourcing. Daily Trust newspapers early this year reported that “many young lawyers in the country who have been told getting paid from senior lawyers is, actually, a favour.” Many young lawyers in chambers of high profile Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) earn monthly as low as N15,000!

It is an open knowledge that in the energy sector, owners of Gencos and Discos are more effective in laying off their workers than guaranteeing uninterrupted electricity supply. Of course the story of casualization is familiar in construction industry. Every burden of production is heaped on the backs of working men and women! The word “recession” or “economic crisis” has become cheap excuse for mass “industrial murder” called retrenchment and downsizing.

Nigeria is rich in human (labour) resources. Nigeria’s economic recovery depends on how it treats its 80 million real and potential workforce. Nigeria has progressive labour laws which sanction permanent employment as opposed to casual labour. Our labour laws ensure health and safety at work, pensions after work and regular payment of salaries as well as protect the rights of workers to freely join trade unions of their choice. Sadly these labour laws are being violated by many employers and even some state governments which unacceptably own salaries for months.

President Buhari’s administration must urgently reform the labour market to enforce the existing progressive labour laws with respect to security of jobs and incomes of the workers in order to motivate for greater productivity for development and economic recovery. Only permanent secured, well paid workforce NOT Casual workers will work Nigeria out of recession. Precarious work fuels precarious economy while secured works ensures economic stability and prosperity. President Buhari has commendably constituted the tripartite wage review committee including labour, employers and government to negotiate new minimum wage long overdue. It’s time the negotiation is concluded with new minimum pay for the workers.

I commend President Buhari for coming to the rescue of some states through bail out for payments of salaries. It’s time to name and damn states governors who default in paying workers monthly as they openly buy votes and buy voters in some recent capital intensive political parties primaries. Trade unions must kill casualization and precarious work otherwise precarious work will kill members! Contract and casual employments are no jobs, “but crimes against humanity”. Governments must eliminate policies and legislation that encourage precarious work, and remove all legislative and other barriers that deny precarious workers their rights. There must be equal access to social protection for precarious workers.