NLC tasks FG on laws, policies to minimise casualisation

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has called on the Federal Government to put in place appropriate laws and policies that would minimise the incidence of casualisation in the country.

Mr Ayuba Wabba, the NLC President, made the call at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the task of fighting casualisation was not the responsibility of the unions alone.

“The common practice in some of our sectors today is to employ in deficit of the legal provision which constitutes an offence.

“While we recognised the changing nature of work and its flexibility, we make bold to state that it is not the underlying reason for casualising workers in our shores.

“In our view it is a combination of the disdain for our labour laws by employers, denial of responsibility, conspiracy, lack of capacity or readiness to enforce the law or the fawning over foreign direct investment, all of which are in violation of the principles of decent work.

“The casual worker is highly vulnerable because he or she is devalued, degraded, abused and reduced to something less valuable than a sponge case. They cannot belong to unions or benefit from collective bargaining agreements.

“They have no social security cover of any kind. There is no job security. In fact, they have no rights of any kind. Workers are reduced to flotatsam and jestsam, the dregs of existence. It is slavery of a noxious kind,” he said.

The NLC president, however, said that casualisation was both shortsighted and counterproductive in the long run to some unscrupulous employers and their collaborators.

According to him, casualisation does not improve productivity, neither does it create the needed bond between employer and the employee.

He therefore said that casualisation was a gross violation of the labour law, a recipe for chaos in the industrial relations space as it constitute a threat to economic development and industrial harmony.

Wabba said in view of these, NLC shall continue to resist casualisation by engaging defaulting employers.

“We are determined to mount a sustainable campaign against casualisation. We have in place a committee on organising with a mandate to mobilise and picket recalcitrant employers across the country.

“Today, some banks are not ready to honour employment agreements or terms of settlements or respect for labour law even as they post humongous profits.

“On our honour, we shall embark on picketing their branches nationwide until they purge themselves of the contempt of laws, by doing the right and proper thing,” he warned.