By Wilson Adekumola
The President of Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, has charged Federal Government to put an end to improper employment of workers.
NLC Presisent made this explanation while reflecting on one of the reactions of the just concluded 111th International Labour Conference, of the International Labour Organisation, in Geneva, Switzerland, proposing the adoption of a recommendation on quality apprenticeships as new Labour standard.
It was gathered that the conference was targeted at supporting “opportunities for people of all ages to skill, reskill and upskill continuously” in rapidly changing labour markets.
It also spelt out a clear definition of apprenticeships, specifies aspirational standards for quality apprenticeships, including rights and protection for apprentices.
Ajaero, while evaluating the culture of apprenticeship, job security, unfair employment practices among others, he indicted the Federal Government through the Ministry of Labour and Employment, for upsurge in casulisation and outsourcing of workers among other forms of indecent employment practices.
He said, “Apprenticeship, especially in the South East area is as old as life. Up till tomorrow, you cannot enter any workshop or similar trade anywhere in the South East without seeing an apprentice.
“Conventionally, even when they don’t have any written agreements after they serve the owners of the businesses, the owners of the businesses take care of them. The owners give apprentices stipends while they are serving and when they finish, the owners of the businesses settle them.
“However, of late we have started witnessing a situation where they will serve for some years and they are left unsettled, thereby creating problems for their parents.
“So apprenticeship is a practice that is traditional in our institutions. However, the ILO’s idea is the payment of stipends during apprenticeship and having them unionised. We were on the same page with employers on this, but when it came to the issue of unionizing those on apprenticeship, employers suddenly changed.
“Those apprentices have the right to belong to the union, how it will work, and how it is structured. These are parts of details that could be discussed through social dialogue.”
On the issue of protection of jobs, Ajaero said, “The issue of job protection is sad because there are even no jobs. So, what are we protecting? Countries like ours have to capture the number of people that are within the unemployment brackets and underemployment brackets. A lot of people in Nigeria are underemployed. In the absence of Social Security or social safety, you have a lot of people who are unemployed and you are talking about job protection. It is a big problem that we are in.
“It is the same with the issue of casualization and outsourcing. The Ministry of Labour does not seem to have an answer to this. Rather, the Ministry of Labour in Nigeria is even trying to get unions to sign an agreement with employers, legalizing casualization. Those that are casualised or outsourced should and must belong to Union. How long will they remain as casual or outsourced workers?
“To worsen the matter, within a period, probably after every two years or even one year, they disengage these casuals and bring in another sect of casuals. It is something that we will have to look at as a national policy and ensure that somebody cannot be outsourced forever. Somebody cannot be a casual worker forever. So we need a new direction towards it.”
