The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has taken a swipe at Vice President Kashim Shettima for his current feedback defending the Dangote Refinery amid its industrial dispute with the Petroleum and Pure Fuel Senior Employees Affiliation of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
In a strongly worded assertion issued on Tuesday to mark the World Day for Respectable Work, NLC President Joe Ajaero accused the Vice President of siding with capitalists in opposition to the working class and warned that the federal government’s place was “a nationwide tragedy” that would deepen social unrest within the nation.
“We condemn within the strongest phrases this deeply troubling assertion by the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, that the Dangote Group is a ‘nationwide asset’ and insinuating, due to this fact, that it must be exempt from obeying the nation’s labour legal guidelines,” Ajaero stated.
“This assertion is just not solely an affront to the rule of regulation however a nationwide tragedy. It’s a public declaration that capital, when sufficiently concentrated, is above the regulation — that cash is sovereign and might undermine respectable work ideas.”
The labour chief accused the federal government of selling impunity and lawlessness by defending massive companies whereas ignoring the plight of odd Nigerian employees.
“By encouraging this lawlessness, the federal government is selling a disdain for our nation’s establishments and emboldening the forces of impunity which have held our nation captive,” Ajaero stated.
“This deliberate abdication of accountability to guard Nigerian employees and the susceptible is a declaration of struggle on the long-suffering residents of Nigeria.”
Ajaero insisted that the NLC would resist any try to erode the rights of employees below the pretext of defending nationwide belongings.
“We is not going to give up the rights of Nigerian employees on the altar of revenue. We are going to mobilize, we are going to arrange, and we are going to combat again. We insist that there are not any sacred cows,” he declared.
The NLC accused the Dangote Group of “overtly violating” the rights of its employees to freedom of affiliation and described the refinery’s labour practices as a “nationwide tragedy.”
“This harmful pronouncement serves to green-light the senseless and grasping actions of the Dangote Group, which has overtly violated the rights of its employees to freedom of affiliation and the appropriate to hitch the commerce union of their alternative,” Ajaero stated.
“Dangote, with its unlawful actions, is just not a nationwide asset however a nationwide tragedy.”
The labour physique additionally linked the refinery’s alleged labour violations to a broader sample of impunity spreading throughout Nigeria’s industrial sector, citing current mass layoffs on the NLNG Prepare 7 venture in Bonny, Rivers State.
“As we converse, the contractors setting up NLNG Prepare 7 in Bonny appear to have borrowed a leaf from Dangote and have sacked 1000’s of employees, changing them with Asians,” the NLC stated. “Their offence: demanding that the taxes they’ve paid to the Authorities be remitted in accordance with regulation.”
Ajaero cautioned that no company, irrespective of how highly effective or linked, must be allowed to function outdoors the boundaries of Nigerian regulation.
“No firm, irrespective of how massive, strategic, or well-connected, can function outdoors the regulation or be greater than Nigeria,” he acknowledged. “If the Dangote Refinery is to be granted rights and privileges over and above the regulation, then the federal government have to be ready for the storms that such an injustice will inevitably unleash. There might be no peace with out justice.”
The NLC reiterated its demand for stronger enforcement mechanisms to make sure compliance with Nigeria’s labour legal guidelines and known as for the tip of what it described as the federal government’s “sacred cow syndrome.”
“The federal government should show, by way of decisive motion, that the regulation is not any respecter of individuals. The State’s obligation is to guard the weak and susceptible employee from the paws of grasping capitalists, to not supply them as sacrificial lambs,” Ajaero stated.
“We name for the strengthening of our labour administration establishments to make sure ruthless enforcement of compliance with all legal guidelines governing industrial relations. The period of impunity should finish.”
Ajaero urged Nigerian employees to stay united in defence of their rights and warned that the NLC wouldn’t hesitate to mobilize in opposition to any type of exploitation or suppression of employees’ freedoms.
“The working class and the poor lots of Nigeria are the true creators of the nation’s wealth, and we is not going to stand idly by whereas our rights are auctioned to the best bidder,” he added.
