TUC asks Reps to okay Labour reform
From Pascal Nwigwe, Abuja
TO further register its approval for the proposed decentralisation of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has written to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Alhaji Aminu Bello Masari, to okay the bill.
The amendment, currently before the National Assembly and which is generating controversy, aims at repealing Section 33(1) of the Trade Union Act (AP437) of the Laws of the Federation of Nigeria (1990). The law provides that the registrar of trade union shall register the NLC as the only central Labour organisation.
In a letter to Masari, the TUC kicked against some principal amendments contained in the bill, such as the "No strike clause," the powers of the minister to approve the registration of Labour unions and that of optional membership.
Defending the planned repeal of the central Labour clause in the Act in the letter by the president-general, Peace Obiajulu and secretary-general, John Kolawole, the TUC claimed that by provisions of existing Trade Union Act, 29 of the 53 registered and recognised trade unions of Nigerian employees are affiliated to the NLC, thereby denying membership to the remaining 24.
Stating that the development had created a lot of misgivings, the TUC wrote: "The Trade Unions' Miscellaneous Provisions Act No 17 of 1986 made it a criminal offence for any of the trade unions excluded from the NLC to affiliate to it. " Article 24 of the NLC's constitution also forbids 24 specific registered trade unions from affiliating to it".
The letter lamented that the NLC had always objected to the participation of these 24 trade unions in meetings where Labour matters were discussed with the Federal Government or the organised private sector.
This, the TUC claimed, had turned the NLC to a monopoly on issues which affect the 24 other unions not affiliated to it.
Reminding the National Assembly of the pending case in the Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, seeking the repeal of Section 33(1), the TUC appealed to the federal lawmakers to support the amendment.
On the issue of optional membership, the TUC argued for the retention of the existing state of affairs which stipulates automatic entry with the liberty or freedom of any worker to contract out at will.
It based its position on the peculiar national situation, history, customs and traditions of the country.
Faulting the "No strike clause" contained in the draft bill, the letter noted the absence of a corresponding "No lock out" provision which would have created a balance and dismissed the clause as unnecessary.
It further claimed that while mobilising two-thirds of workers to declare a strike, it would be extremely difficult to gather the same majority to call it off, under the circumstances characterising a polity during an industrial strike.`
