NLC President, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar
Organised labour is set for a showdown with employers of labour who are threatening their employees with dismissal or pay cut for failing to report to work as a result of the nationwide strike action called by labour and its civil society allies last week.
The strike and mass protest was called to resist the planned deregulation of the downstream sector of the oil industry and compel the Federal Government to revert the pump price of fuel to N65 per litre.
We leant that some private and public sector employers are already threatening to carry out disciplinary action on employees that ignore the order to resume work while others are set to implement the ‘No work, no pay’ rule.
Speaking on the issue, Director General of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Dr. Segun Oshinowo, welcomed the decision of employers to implement the ‘No work, no pay’ rule, stating that it was in line with the law of the land.
According to him, the strike and mass protest called by labour and the civil society group had already disrupted economic activities in the country with the economy losing a staggering N794.5 billion in the last five working days on account of the strike. He said private sector employers are loosing revenue by the day and may not be able pay workers for the period that they did not report to work.
“The law of the land stipulates that any worker that fails to report to work should not be paid. Employers are loosing sales revenue so where will they get the money to pay their workers? In other parts of the world, it is the unions that pay workers salaries when they call workers out for strike.
“The unions use the accumulated check off dues to pay workers’ salary during the period of strike so why should Nigeria be different? It is not the responsibility of employers to sustain workers financially during strike because the employers themselves are loosing money,” Oshinowo said.
However, labour leaders are not taking this stand of employers likely as they have threatened to shut down the premises of any employer that victimises employees on account of their participation in the strike against the removal of fuel subsidy.
Chairman, Rivers State Council of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), Comrade Chika Unuegbu, who confirmed this development, told The Press the Congress had received reports that some banks are threatening their workers with dismissal for not reporting to work last week.
Unuegbu, who condemned in strong terms the action of management of the affected banks, said the national secretariat of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and TUC will engage the management of the banks in order to ensure that no worker is victimised for participating in the strike.
“Labour has received a report that some banks are threatening their workers with dismissal if they don’t report to work. We condemn the action of these banks as anti-labour. These workers are Nigerians and not slaves and the management of these banks cannot treat them as slaves in their fatherland.
“The national secretariat of the NLC and TUC will immediately reach the management of these banks as well as the leadership of ASSBIFI to ensure that no worker is threatened or penalised on account of his participation in the strike,” he said.
Also National President of Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Comrade Sunday Salako, dismissed the threat as mere allegation.
He insisted that no employer has the right to victimise any employer for participating in the nationwide strike called by labour, warning that labour would paralyse the operation of any financial institution that threatens its employees with dismissal or pay cut.
“No bank will want to victimise any worker on account of participating in the strike. Any bank or financial institution that does that will be shut down. Any bank that wants to take advantage of the strike to cut the salaries of staff will be severely dealt with. This is because it is against the standard of the International Labour Organisation (ILO),” Salako said.
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