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NLC to fight casualisation to standstill — Official
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says it has resolved to fight casualisation to a standstill in the country.
The Head, NLC Lagos Sub-Secretariat, Mr Wilson Onemolease, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos.
Onemolease spoke on the sidelines of a picketing carried out by construction workers under the aegis of National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFEW).
The workers had picketed the office of an engineering company, Al Mansour Engineering Company, in Lagos, alleging anti-labour practices including casualisation.
Onemolease said: ‘’Casualisation, outsourcing are global trends; employers do not want to take responsibility when you leave work.
‘’They do not want to probably take care of the insurance; contribute to pension: the reason why it is trending.
‘’Before now, what we used to do as a union was to fight for those who are our members, but we resolved in 2004 that every worker, irrespective of who they are, needs to be protected.’’
The leader said, however, that the union was facing challenges in curbing the practice because some workers in their respective workplaces refused to report it.
According to him, fear of job loss was one major reason many of the workers did not report to the union.
‘’We need to fight this trend; it is not just because of the ills in these companies at the moment, but we are targeting the future.
‘’How can you work for 30 years and at the end of the day, you are just sent home – there will not be gratuity, pension.
‘’It is something we need to fight; it is a global war and we will continue to do our best; all we just need is information, ‘’ Onemolease said.
Also, the General Secretary, NUCECFEW, Mr Ibrahim Walama, said that NLC’s recent National Executive Council Meeting held in Enugu resolved to set up committees at different levels to address casualisation.
‘’First, we call it anti casualisation and organising committee at the national level, to be led by senior officials at that level.
‘’Also, for each state of the council, it was agreed at the NEC that they should form anti casualisation committee so as to engage any employer that is indulged in this practice.
‘’We have resolved at our recent NEC meeting to go out and engage all employers in the industry, who are in the habit of casualising the employment of workers.
‘’We have also realised that such is so dehumanising and it does not give any worker any sense of belonging, neither will a worker call it a decent work because he is commonised as a casual, ‘’Walami said.
Earlier, the workers chanted solidarity songs, holding up placards with inscriptions such as, ‘’Stop Treating Workers like Slaves’’; ‘’Responsible Corporate Organisations Respect Statutory Agreements with Social Partners’’ among others.
Walami said: ‘’Some of the things we are doing here are to ensure workers’ rights are recognised; they should be organised.
‘’It is in our collective bargaining agreement that there should be no casualisation of employment; if it should be, it should not exceed one month where you are testing the capacity of workers on an assigned job.”
Meanwhile, the Human Resource Officer of the engineering company, who refused to say his name, told NAN that the management was still discussing with the union and did not have any comment to make.
The Nigerian Railway Corporation has announced the suspension of services between Delta and Kogi due to the unsatisfactory nature of the track conditions from Ujevwu in Delta State to Itakpe in Kogi State.
This was disclosed in a notice titled “Public Announcement” which was sent to customers, indicating that the agency plans to resume operations on Monday, July 8, 2024.
The suspension, effective from Friday, was attributed to an obstruction on the track.
“This is to officially notify our esteemed passengers that the Warri-Itakpe Train will not run today Friday, 5th July 2024 due to the obstruction we have on our track.
“We shall resume our normal train services on Monday 8th July 2024. Passengers who already booked their tickets online will be refunded.
“All inconveniences are highly regretted. Thank you,” the statement added.
Ogun State Head of Service, Mr. Kehinde Onasanya has said that the State is leading other states of the Federation in Ease of Doing Business, owing to the provision of requisite infrastructural facilities through the Public Private Partnership (PPP) projects in the State.
Onasanya made this known while delivering a keynote address at the launch of a book titled “Practical Guide to Public Private Partnership Arrangement in Nigeria” authored by Pastor Adebisi Sogunle and held at the Waterfalls Events Centre, Ikeja, Lagos.
According to him, since the State passed the PPP law in 2019, the initiative has facilitated projects with road networks rehabilitated and expanded as well as reconstruction of the Ijebu-Ode-Epe Expressway among others.
He explained that the collaborative agreement between the public and private sectors was predicated on the strengths of both sectors to achieve outcomes that neither could effectively accomplish alone.
“Under the visionary leadership of His Excellency, Prince Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State has harnessed the potential of PPP to drive significant developments and give Ogun State focused and qualitative governance and as well create the necessary enabling environment for a public private sector partnership.
“This is fundamental to the creation of an enduring economic development and individual prosperity of the people of Ogun. Let me, therefore, highlight some of the notable projects of the State Government and their impacts through PPP:
“The Ogun State Agro Cargo Airport: Developed in partnership with the private sector, the Agro Cargo Airport is designed to facilitate the export of agricultural products, thereby boosting the agro-industrial sector.
ii.Ogun State Housing Development Projects: Several housing projects, including the Prince Court Estate, have been developed through PPP arrangements to address the housing deficit.
iii.Ogun State Energy Generation Projects: Lisabi Mini Power was developed in partnership with the private sector to generate 4.5mw Power for transmission and distribution within the State to Government core areas.
“Other projects of the State Government in the pipeline through PPPs include the Olokola Deep Sea Port, Sagamu Trailer Park, Sagamu Stadium, Hillcrest Estate, PMB Estate, Lomiro Oil Palm, OGSG Pharmaceuticals, OGSG Forestry project, Gateway Hotel Ota, Inland Dry Port at Kajola/Papalanto, amongst others,” the HoS said.
While congratulating the author of the book for his contributions to the discourse on PPP, Onasanya said the valuable resource will no doubt guide policy makers, practitioners and investors in navigating the complexities of PPP arrangements in Nigeria and urged public servants as well as private sector partners to key into the messages of the book and apply its lessons in their endeavours.
On his part, the former Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the book is timely because government alone cannot maintain all its assets, which requires the PPP arrangements, saying the arrangement paved the way for some major road infrastructure with particular reference to Ogun State and commended the Ogun State Government for keying into the initiative, which has created more job opportunities for the people.
Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the event, the National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Dr. Chris Iziguzor said the PPP initiative has assisted Ogun State in achieving much in the area of infrastructural development and added that the arrangement, in turn, brought in more investors and provided job opportunities for the citizens.
In his response, the author, Pst. Adebisi Sogunle, while appreciating all guests for the support he got, said he wrote the book based on the experience he garnered while working on a PPP arranged programme in Cross River State.
He said the book will help in examining the roles of stakeholders because they have the responsibility to maintain the environment when political, economic, and administrative concerns arise while partnering.
News
Reverse 40 per cent import fees on LPG to encourage local manufacturers – Techno Oil boss urges FG
Mrs Nkechi Obi, Group Managing Director (GMD), Techno Oil Limited has urged the Federal Government if Nigeria to reverse its policies on the importation of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders.
Obi made her displeasure known during a panel session at the 2024 Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja.
Speaking, Obi pleaded with the government to reverse the zero import duties placed on the importation of LPG cylinders and restore the initial 40 per cent import duties, to discourage importation.
“We need policy reversal on that to encourage local producers. The unofficial explanation we are getting from some customs officers is that the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) which the government wants to encourage its usage in Nigeria, has the same Harmonised System (HS) code with LPG.”
“So, the import benefits placed on CNG equipment eventually affected LPG equipment; that is why they were tied together on the zero import duties.”
“Harmonised System codes are commonly used throughout the import and export process for the classification of goods.”
“For me, we don’t produce CNG cylinders in Nigeria because it involves advanced technology but we produce LPG cylinders here.”
“For us to produce CNG cylinders, we have to change one or two machines, and we expect the government to encourage us to upscale our technology to 32, which we are planning to do.” She lamented.
Obi also called on the Federal Government to separate LPG HS code from that of CNG, to ensure that importers of LPG pay higher import duties, and to also enable the government to continue with its efforts to make CNG affordable in the country with zero import duties.
“The previous government protected those producing cylinders, so that import will not overshadow local production; they did that to encourage local manufacturing but when this government came into existence, policy changed.”
“We only enjoyed that policy for six months before it was scrapped and replaced with the new “zero import duties” policy.”
“Definitely, we have to produce CNG cylinders and the government needs to consider those that will go into that production. But if government policy is killing LPG cylinder production that we are doing, it will be very difficult to enter into CNG cylinder production.”
“So, if there is anybody who can venture into CNG cylinder production, we the producers of LPG cylinders are here to do that and it is in our plan.”
“But we are not encouraged to do it because of what happened to us in the LPG cylinder production because of the frustrating policy that is encouraging its importation,” Obi added.
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