The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association on Tuesday called on the Federal Government to uphold trade union rights in line with international labour standards, emphasising that proscribing unions would set a dangerous precedent.
Speaking at a press briefing ahead of the Labour Adjudication and Arbitration Forum scheduled to commence on February 13, 2025, in Abuja, NECA’s Director-General, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, expressed concern over government actions that undermine the rights of trade unions.
“To what issue was the government threatening to proscribe trade unions?” he questioned.
“So if they are proscribing unions, who says one day the government will not become irrational and start proscribing employer’s federations? These organisations are also protected by the ILO conventions. So it’s very important that the government respects those conventions,” he said.
Oyerinde further stressed the importance of updating Nigeria’s labour laws to reflect modern realities.
“The issue of the Nigerian labour law has been done for a while, we don’t even know where it is again, whether it is in the office of the Labour Minister or in the Ministry of Justice. We can’t really say.”
He urged the government to engage constructively with stakeholders and leverage international influence to advance labour reforms.
He expressed optimism that the presence of the Director General of ILO, Gilbert Houngbo, would help facilitate the sanctity of the ILO convention in Nigeria.
“We hope his influence will also facilitate this conversation with the government, and he will also put in a word to say that we need to facilitate this labour law. Sanctity of conventions and recommendations are issues that we think we also need to emphasise,” he said.
Oyerinde also criticised excessive levies and charges imposed on businesses, arguing that they stifle job creation and economic growth.
“Everybody is just coming up with levies and fees that the private sector will pay. And at the same time, you want the same private sector to create jobs. At the same time, you want the private sector to be responsible for its activities. It doesn’t work like that,” he said.
He called for a deeper analysis of government revenue collection strategies.
“How many jobs were lost for every revenue that any agency makes, and what is the price you are also interrogating? If you say you make 10 billion naira into the operation account, how many jobs were lost to get that 10 billion? How many businesses had to reduce their capacity utilisation because of the 10 billion you have made?”
Also speaking at the event, the Country Director of the International Labour Organisation Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, Vanessa Phala-Moyo, reiterated the ILO’s commitment to social justice and international labour standards.
“The Africa region adopted the Abidjan Declaration, and this Abidjan Declaration was Africa’s way of translating the Global Coordination on the Future of Work report that was commissioned by the ILO and its, of course, member states and social partners,” she said.
Phala-Moyo explained that the ILO’s Director General has prioritised social justice by broadening stakeholder engagement beyond governments, workers, and employers.
“The global coalition includes academics, other UN agencies, and many other organisations, and the importance of that is to make sure that the perspective is broader and much more comprehensive.”
She emphasised that the ILO aims to ensure fairness in labour practices. “The global coalition for social justice is really to make sure that we balance our contribution; we make sure that we address the issues of inequality that are still very important in our region and also in the world in terms of achieving social justice.”
Phala-Moyo encouraged Nigeria to engage in the ILO’s global coalition for social justice, stating, “This will be an opportunity for Nigeria to listen to that vision, to listen to that perspective, but most importantly to then say, what does this mean in the context of Nigeria, what does social justice mean, and how can we work together collaboratively as partners to really make sure that we address some of the pertinent, distant rectifications that we are still experiencing.”