A former Director of Productivity Measurement and Labour Standard, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Dan Nebragho has attributed the allegation of bias by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, against the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to the hitherto lax implementation of the provisions of the labour laws.
Nebragho has also appealed to the Federal Government to consider bending backwards as it did in 2020 when it released to ASUU, a back log of nine months salary caught in the web of the no-work, no pay policy.
In a statement in Abuja Sunday, the Labour Relations Expert, who was also Nigeria’s representatives at the African Regional Labour Centre Headquarters, Zimbabwe, observed that Ngige’s decision to resort to a strict implementation of the provisions of the Trade Disputes Act and Trade Union Act hitherto treated with levity is the reason for criticism from ASUU.
According to him, “From my observation of the ASUU dispute with the federal government, the Minister of Labour and Employment has done nothing illegal or deployed personal whims to conciliation. What he did was to frontload a strict observance of the provisions of the labour laws, since efforts of the tripartite and tripartite-plus dialogue could not provide solution and convince ASUU to call off action.
“He strictly deployed the relevant provisions of the Trade Disputes Act and Trade Union Act to put perennial strikes on the back foot. And such strict implementation of laws that was lax previously, would surely attract criticisms. Previous Ministers would usually stake over this, even Ngige at a point. The reverse is why ASUU is tackling him.
“It takes political will to take certain decisions. Ngige dusted sections that mandate him to take certain actions. The issue of withdrawal of certificate of any union on account of non-rendition of annual audited accounts as contained in section 37 of the Trade Union Act which demands that unions must submit audited accounts on or before June 1 every year, is an example.
“ASUU from available records, is in default from 2018 to 2022 and the penalty is that the Registrar of Trade Unions should cancel such registration. I do not see how this is the making of the Minister if this happens.”
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