Ensure employers implement Employees Compensation Act – Ngige urges NLC

The Federal Government has urged the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) to ensure that employers implement the Employees Compensation Act (ECA).

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige said this at 13th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference of the NLC in Abuja on Tuesday.

The delegates conference is titled: “Building People’s Power, National Unity and Quest for a New Contract”.

Ngige said: ”the major work I want the next NLC administration to do is the implementation of the Employee Compensation Act and the Pension Reform Act (PRA).

“The Pension Commission Act makes it mandatory that the employees in any organisation must get two insurance covers for their workers.

“That is one group life insurance for a person in case of when the person dies. Second, Employee Compensation Act that replaces the old workers’ compensation act.

“This makes sure all workers are insured against accidents, infirmity, disease that occurs in the course of discharge of their duty,” he said.

The minister said unfortunately, state governments in particular were not paying particular attention to ECA.

He said that no government was implementing the ECA of 2010, though it was a national law.

The minister said that some corporations in the public service have tried to implement the act by engaging private insurance companies to do what they call accident insurance for workers.

He said they did this because they they did not want to pay for any fatalities, but they liked to gather the premium.

”Therefore the next NLC leadership, if you love the workers and if you love your consistency, you must press for the employee compensation act to be universal.

”You must have universal coverage for workers in the states, if you slip on this right, you have not done your workers well.

Ms Vanessa Phala, the Country Director-General, International Labour Organisation (ILO) said the delegate’s conference was to deliberate on issues affecting workers globally and in Nigeria on the need to evolve the world of work.

”Our time is marked by economic and social crisis that have been unfolding over the past few years and further aggravated by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian-Ukrane war.

“‘Our context is marked by worsening inequalities, environmental crises and million youths who want to work cannot find a job,’she said.

Phala, therefore, said that there was need for a global social justice that comprise a Modernised Normative System that would support the quest for social justice in the rapidly changing world of work.