Trade Unions Amendment Bill: Labour considers legal option
Babatunde Oke
Trade unions in the country may have concluded plans to institute a case against the Federal Government to declare the Trade Unions Amendment Bill recently passed by the Senate unconstitutional as well as stop the government from implementing the provisions of the bill.
Amidst much controversy the executive sponsored Trade Unions Amendment Bill, were passed by the senate last Thursday despite the plea by labour and other civil society groups against the passage of the bill by the legislators.
The upper legislative house passed the bill with only 36 of its members and with little or no amendment to the bill and without considering the recommendations of the Committee on Labour and Productivity.
Prior to the passage of the bill by the Senate, the Nigeria Labour Congress, in an attempt to stop the legislators from passing it had taken the government to court challenging its constitutionality. The court struck out the case on the ground that the bill has never become a law; therefore it has not contravened the Constitution.
Speaking with our correspondent on a Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Louis Brown Ogbeifun, said the bill as it was passed contravened the Constitution, adding �Section 5 (1) (a) of the bill, which empowers the Minister to approve or not approve the formation of federation of trade unions is against the Freedom of Association as stipulated in the 1999 Constitution.�
�Also the provisions on the strike, especially the one that exclude some categories of workers from going on strike, is against the right to protest,� he said.
He stated that the Central Working Committee and the National Executive Council of the TUC would meet soon to discuss the effects of the bill and that machinery would be put in motion to contact the congress lawyers on the bill.
As for the NLC, a member of the CWC said the congress would follow then advise of its lawyers on the matter, adding that the two highest organs of the labour centre; the CWC and the NEC would meet later this week to determine the next step to tackle the issue.
�Since we were told at the court to wait until when the bill was passed before we take the case to court, I think this is the right time for us to challenge the bill at the law court,� he said.
The President of the NLC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, had told workers at a rally three weeks ago, that the provision of the bill that proscribe strike was an attempt to denied the workers from protesting while suffering.
His words, �I think if the father has the right to beat a child, the child should also have the right to cry. With this provision on strike, we as workers will be deprived the right to cry while we are being beating. Employers, especially the multinational ones will have undue advantage to inflict punishment on the workers without any protest from the workers.�
On picketing, Oshiomhole told our correspondent in a telephone interview, �this confirmed the what we have been saying that the multinational companies, who are filling uncomfortable with our demand that the laws of the country governing employment should be obeyed are putting undue pressure on the President Obasanjo to tame labour.
�This is what the legislators have just done. But they should know that it will be easy to get the simple majority to prosecute a strike but to call it off will be the problem, as it will be difficult to get the same number,� he said.
