The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said Kaduna state Governor, Nasir el-Rufai has not paid any of the 38,000 disengaged workers in the state.
NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who disclosed this when a delegation from the International Labour Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland, paid him a visit in Abuja, said their disengagement was against collective bargain and ILO convention 87 and 98.
“Kaduna state where about 38,000 workers were disengaged without respect to collective bargaining agreement and ILO Convention 87 & 98.
“None of them has been paid any benefit. Some of them have worked for 15 years, 20 years, others 25 years and the law of collective bargaining is explicit that there should be a collective agreement. All of these have been reported to the Federal Ministry of Labour and employment.”
On the standard of reporting on ILO, Wabba said “We have also reported on the issue of review of the labour laws, where we have actually faulted the process because the draft laws that we have are not only obsolete, but they have not actually accommodated the issues that have been raised by the committee of experts.
“Importantly is that the laws were doctored. The ministry of labour sent a letter asking us to revalidate some bills but looking at the bills, we found out that we have not participated in the process of coming up with the draft as required by law.
“There has been a gap in driving these processes through the standard that is advanced by ILO.
“After we returned from the ILO, I saw a statement from the ministry stating that Nigeria was reported. No, that is not true, Nigeria failed to report, Nigeria has a reporting obligation every year and we have not done that and therefore we are in violation of the procedure and that must be respected and that must be accepted. “
Speaking earlier, Sofia Amaral de Oliveria, Specialist on ILO standards and Labour Law, said the team were in Nigeria on the invitation of the government on the application of standard.
“We are here to hear your concerns and your views on the application of labour standards in the country, and also to hear the most pressing issues from the NLC.”
