THE Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Kwara State, Comrade Issa Aremu, on Thursday stated that in the absence of decent work, Nigeria’s independence remains incomplete for workers.
Comrade Aremu made the remark Thursday in his welcome address at a symposium organised by MINILS to commemorate this year’s World Day for Decent Work (WDDW) under the theme: “Just Jobs – Building a Recovery for Everyone”, and held at the main auditorium of the institute.
Comrade Aremu said the gallantry exhibited by iconic Labour Leader No.1, the late Michael Imoudu, was not about any other struggle order than resistance against precarious work as practiced under British colonialism.
Stressing that colonialism undermined decent work, Comrade Aremu said it was the struggle led by Pa Imoudu and others that ultimately led to Nigeria’s political emancipation from oppression and exploitation under British rule.
Aremu, who said that decent work translates to prosperity and security of jobs, therefore enjoined government and employers in general to pay decent wages.
While promising to annually mark the World Day for Decent Work with special conversations such as the symposium, Comrade Aremu commended both the NLC and TUC for their struggles for the realisation of decent work, just as he asked both centres to stand up against precarious work.
Aremu commended President Buhari for the signing into law the current N30,000 minimum wage and the recent approval for paternity leave to male workers whose wives deliver, among other labour friendly policies.
Comrade Aremu also use the occasion to articulate some decent work policies under his leadership of MINILS promised to enhance the welfare of all categories of workers such as the payment of outstanding benefits, including the implementation of minimum wage for all categories of staff so as to achieve higher productivity to meet the core mandates of the institute.
In her remark, the Country Director of the ILO, Vanessa Phala, said the ILO in the West African sub-region would be more forthcoming to encourage social actors’ collaborations towards improving working conditions that are just to all as a pathway for recovery from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
She assured MINILS of ILO’s support towards its (institute’s) agenda in delivering qualitative workers education and for advocacy that touch on the needs of social actors in prioritising the need for a just recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The keynote address, which focused on the theme: “Just Jobs – Building a Recovery for Everyone which was delivered,” and delivered by the immediate past Director General of MINILS, Dr John Niyi Olanrewaju, traced the history of decent work, highlighting the key indicators of decent work.
Representatives from the NLC, TUC, the Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Kwara State government, other trade unions, Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and informal sector unions, among others attended the event.
A communiqué issued at the end of the programme highlighted among other things key observations from the discussion after the presentation to include:
“i. ILO’s labour setting roles involving the crafting of international conventions and recommendations are vital to reversing rising decent work deficits affecting workers world-wide;
“ii. Nigeria’s labour laws are obsolete as the penalties to deter deliberate employers’ breaches are insufficient to arrest the ugly trends in decent work deficits;
“iii. increasing unemployment is at the heart of most of the recent social problems including insecurity, youths migration, armed and violent conflicts and clamour by separatists;
“iv. new forms of work organizations emanating from globalization and adoption of new technology as cost cutting measures are among several push factors for rising decent work deficits;
“v. MINILS has not been adequately mainstreamed in the policy making processes by government at all levels, employers of labour and trade unions both locally and globally; vi. the current wage rates applicable in the developing countries are a reflection of low priority accorded to labour as the force behind economic growth and development; and,
“Nigeria’s industrialization development is lagging behind the explosion of its population growth rate contributing to unemployment and idleness among our youths.”
According to the communiqué, the recommendations derived from the presentation and the discussion, include: that “Social actors must work concertedly to improve on legal and policy frameworks that would engender a decent work environment world-wide, deliberate efforts are required the moderate the rising levels of unemployment through industrialization and real sector growth which lies at the heart of the decent work agenda, and the right to unionize and to collectively bargain must be extended to the informal sector workforce and millions of workers caught in the web of structural changes occurring in the world of work.”
