Labour, Employers’ Body Sign MoU on Job Security

Onyebuchi Ezigbo

Organised labour and the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to ensure that worker’s job are safeguarded during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Speaking yesterday at the MoU signing ceremony between the NECA and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) at the committee room of labour house, NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said nothing has in recent times threatened the shared interests and aspirations of both employers of labour and workers like the novel coronavirus pandemic.

While NECA represented employers in the private sector, the NLC and the TUC represented trade unions and organised labour in Nigeria

The labour movement asked the federal government to provide businesses with palliative, grant and fiscal support incentives, including downward review of tax and interest rates, in order to give the businesses breathing space to maintain production at pre-COVID-19 level and to be able to protect jobs and income.

The labour leaders said they would also work with private sectors through the social dialogue process to prevent further loss of jobs in Nigeria.

Speaking during the signing of the MOU, Wabba said the body’s major concerns were job security, rights at work, social protection and occupational health and safety for all workers in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

He said: “While we continue to call on the government and private sector employers to provide adequate protective and preventive facilities at the workplace, we will use the framework of this MoU to ensure that workers who fall ill are supported through paid sick leave to recover and be reinstated safely to their positions at work.”

Wabba added that labour would also defend the existing social protection nets such as pension and gratuity.