NLC seeks NECA'S partnership on minimum wage negotiation
AS the country prepares to negotiate a new national minimum wage, the Nigeria Labour Congress ( NLC) has sought the cooperation of the Nigeria Employers' Consultative Association ( NECA) to work together to provide a living wage for Nigerian workers. The NLC argued that a national minimum wage anchored on the objective economic realities confronting Nigerian workers was the only acceptable minimum standard.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said this at the second yearly adjudicatory and mediatory forum, organised by NECA, in Abuja. While being optimistic about NECA'S greater understanding of the interests and well- being of workers under its care during the negotiation, Ajaero said there was also a need to make workplaces more productive and decent work compliant.
Speaking on the theme ' Strengthening Tripartism and Social Dialogue for a Sustainable Industrial Relations System in Nigeria', the NLC chief warned all stakeholders involved in the adjudicatory process against the perils of using the mechanism as a tool for intimidation, coercion, or suppression of workers' rights. He said the stakeholders, be it the judiciary, employers, or government agencies, workers must unequivocally reject any attempts to subvert the sanctity of the adjudicatory process and undermine the fundamental principles of democracy and justice.
He raised the alarm on the unfortunate use of the "revered" process by some of those who occupy the corridors to undermine the trust reposed on them as the critical stakeholders of workplace relations adjudication.
According to him, in many parts of the country, trade unions are increasingly confronted with the ugly face of the perversion of justice in favour of either employers or government at the detriment of workers and their organisations.
He alleged that specific cases abound where the Courts have allowed themselves to be used to grant injunctions against trade unions by the government to scuttle the rights of Nigerian workers to freely express their democratic rights and privileges.
Citing instances, he said: "We have had to grapple with injunctions given against the NLC and Trade Union Congress of Nigeria ( TUC), whose sole purpose was to stop the exercise of our inalienable right to hold a strike or protest which are democratic and fundamental to the very relations that we espouse for our workplaces.
"The abuse of the adjudicatory process not only jeopardises industrial harmony but also poses a grave threat to our nation's democratic fabric and social cohesion.