The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and representatives of Kogi State government are expected to meet in Abuja on Thursday with a view to resolving the proscription of the Academic Staff Union of University (ASUU) and the sack of some lecturers at the state university.
President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba told The Guardian in Abuja that the meeting, which was scheduled to hold last Tuesday, was aborted due to the absence of Governor Yahaya Bello.
Wabba also said the NLC will unveil its position on calls for restructuring of the country tomorrow. He noted that the decision of the NLC to organise a colloquium titled: The Labour Movement and the Future of a United Nigeria: What Role for Restructuring, was conceived to give a pan-Nigerian meaning to the restructuring debate.
Wabba insisted that Bello’s purported ban of ASUU at the Kogi State University was alien to the laws regulating labour practices in Nigeria and runs counter to the freedom of association espoused by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), to which Nigeria is a signatory.
“This rather hasty and ill-advised action contradicts all known and extant national and international laws and conventions, as the governor has no right to ban any union. Trade Unions as independent workers organisations are neither under the control of the state government nor registered by it.
“Under the ILO Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, duly ratified by the country, workers shall have the right to organise and form trade unions.
“Public authorities shall refrain from any interference, which would restrict this right or impede the lawful exercise thereof and the unions shall not be liable to be dissolved or suspended by administrative authority,” he explained.
He added this convention was not only reinforced by ILO Convention 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining, but buttressed and domesticated by the 1999 Constitution, which stated in Section 40 that every person shall not only be entitled to freely assemble or associate, but freely form or belong to trade unions and other associations for the protection of his interests.
Wabba pointed out that Bello’s action not only contravened the laws of the country and conventions of the ILO, but an abuse of the lecturers’ fundamental human rights.
He further observed that even in the dark days of the military when such obnoxious actions were attempted against the unions, the Juntas had to reverse themselves in compliance with International Conventions and laws of the land.
Credit: Guardian
