This follows several backlash from numerous bodies over the comment made by the minister. The National Employers Consultative Association (NECA) had accused him of ‘partisanship, populist and unprofessionalism,’ and that his comments ordering the banks on what to do with regards to retrenchment was not far from a display of autocratic tendencies.
“I know my rights as Minister of Labourand Employment and I will exercise those rights for the benefits of Nigerians, high and low," he said when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking and Finance during the weekend.
"It is within my powers to declare a truce in any industrial crisis. That was why I asked the banks, ‘don’t retrench further’ and the unions, ‘don’t picket the banks’ so we can sit down to resolve the issues. The labour law on redundancy says in article 20 that if you negotiate redundancy and a party is dissatisfied, the minister has the right to intervene," he said.
According to him, everything is stated in Nigeria's constitution.
“The law makes provision for the employer to disengage a worker if he cannot actually run his enterprise efficiently and effectively with a big load of staff in which case, he will declare redundancy but it states clearly the process for doing this.
“It says you must engage the labour unions in that industry and if it gets out of hand, the local unions will report to their national union. If they can’t resolve this, the parties, unions or the banks will refer it to the Minister of Labour for conciliation.”
According to him, the Labour Ministry intervened after it got petitions from NUBIFE on casualisation, contract staffing, poor remunerations which is not in conformity with equal work, equal pay in our constitution, ill human conditions of service, rampant termination without due compensation and resistant to unionisation by the banks. This is contrary to section 40 of the constitution, he said.
“We investigated these and found them true in some banks. We invited the concerned banks; they gave excuses on why they won’t honour the invitation while they continued with retrenchments,” Ngige told the Senate Committee He also dispelled the insinuations that the federal government was obstructing and interfering in the running of private businesses given the recent clamp and shut down of big businesses across the country.
“We are not interfering in their business. They are there to make money and protect their investments and nobody is against this. But don’t forget that individual Nigerians are also investors in these banks. So they are not the only investors.
“I have my own shares in these banks and they pay me dividends, which I am pleased with. However, I will not be party to drawing dividends on the blood of helpless Nigerians. The banks can save some of these low cadre jobs by re-adjusting the heavy perks at its top management cadre. We pleaded same with the major oil companies and it worked.”
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Ngige, u don't have such powers & u can't arrogate that to urself.
ReplyDeleteWhere did you get such power from shut up.
ReplyDelete