THE DIRECTOR General of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Comrade Issa Aremu, has scored the President Bola Tinubu-led administration high on government-labour relations.
Aremu stated this on Friday in Ilorin during the unveiling of a 200-page ‘Compendium of Achievements’, in commemoration of his three years in office as the fifth director-general of the institute.
According to him, there has been a harmonious relationship with labour on decent work agenda and relative industrial peace, notwithstanding the daunting economic challenges currently facing the country.
Aremu noted that rather than retrenching and downsizing the workforce, as it was done during the past reforms, Tinubu had taken the bold decision of freeing resources from over-bloated fuel subsidies.
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He added that the reform had since improved the revenue for all tiers of government, guaranteed the security of public service jobs and expanded the frontiers of new jobs in the digital economy.
“It has also laid the basis for improved regularly paid salaries within the framework of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda,’” he said.
Aremu described the 15-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the federal government, NLC and TUC on Oct. 2, 2023 as “the most expansive and qualitative in the history of collective bargaining in Nigeria.”
He said that the ‘historic agreement’ covers both wage and non-wage issues, such as presidential wage awards, cash transfers and provision of CNG buses to minimise the impacts of fuel subsidy removal on workers.
Aremu commended the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Dr Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, and the organised labour for their commitment to full implementation of the agreement which covered the payment of the presidential wage award of N35,000.
Speaking on the compendium of achievements of MINILS since 2012, some stakeholders stated that Aremu had repositioned the institute to meet the key performance targets set by the federal government.
In his address, chairperson of Kwara State council of NLC, Comrade Murtala Olayinka, said that the institute had been foremost in establishing and promoting industrial harmony and entrepreneurship in the country.
Olayinka noted that Aremu had prioritised staff welfare, annual promotion exercises of as many as 150 junior, senior and management staff as well as payment of end of the year bonuses. (NAN)
