ABUJA — THE ministers of labour and productivity and information yesterday advised the leadership of the trade union movement not to embark on strike but to concentrate on issues which are of direct concern to workers.
Speaking during the ministerial briefing of the Ministry of Labour & Productivity with the theme "Seizing Our Opportunities," Labour Minister, Dr. Hassan Lawal said by embarking on strike, the NLC would be sending the wrong signals to the international community and urged the leadership of the labour movement to dialogue and consult with government.
Though the minister did not say if government has created room for dialogue on th fuel price hike, he said: "We've had a lot of turbulent times with the labour movement, but since the inception of this administraton, no single leader has been incarcerated, jailed. There has been freedom of association," adding "there is no where the labour movement has the kind of freedom they have in Nigeria."
According to the minister, "Nigeria is not the only country where we have trade unions, there are progressive trade unions all over the world but they never abandon their responsibility."
The minister said, organized labour needs to be concerned about issues such as casualization of workers, and inspection of factories which are of direct benefit to workers. He said, we don’t believe Nigerians should be slaves in their country. We want NLC to join hands with us to free ourselves from this slavery to make our factories safe."
A representative of the Minister of Information, Dr. Chris Agboli in an earlier address appealed to the labour movement and the civil society organisations to "consider the national interest. He said a national strike would not be in the interest of the common man.
The Labour minister said as long as the leadership of the labour movement concerns itself with its primary responsibility, "there will be no problems but if you challenge the government, there would be problems."
Dr. Hassan Lawal said, although he appreciates that there may be overlapping issues, they could be resolved "through social dialogue, collective bargaining, consultation, not strikes, not confrontation."
On job creation efforts of the ministry, the minister disclosed that the ministry has constituted a committee to carry out and implement the strategies adopted at the Ougadougou summit on employment which according to him, the ministry, would "ensure that annually we facilitate the creation of jobs and make two million Nigerians employable."
The ministry he also said, plans to host an employment summit before the end of the year during which "a national plan of action on employment will emerge" in addition to the seven million jobs target of the NEEDS programme. The minister said in creating these jobs, the ministry remains committed to decent jobs. He however said " it is not the responsibility of government alone to create jobs."
In the last one year, the minister said Nigeria has ratified five conventions of the International Labour Organization , adding, "these go to show that not only do we take the promotion and protection of the rights of Nigerian workers seriously, we are committed to our roles and responsibilities in promoting and applying international labour standards."
