Chris Ngige's Threat To Banks; See Labour Acts Breached By Banks: Know Your Right!

Chris Ngige

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Many Nigerians where awakened with a rude shock from the minister of labour and employment threatening to withdraw the licenses of banks who failed to obey the directives of the government on mass sack and come to the negotiation table.

It is a pity that, political differences, tribal and ethno religious hates have really beclouded the sound reasoning of many Nigerians. The honourable minister clearly stated and
I quote;

“The federal government gave the licences to the banks to operate and if its directives are not adhered to the licences will be withdrawn if the need arises,” he said.

“We will go a step further if they continue. We know what to do. They need to comply. They need to come to the negotiation table. We halted the spate of sack in the oil industry and we succeeded.

“Even if you are going to lay off, there is a way to declare redundancy, there is a process. Section 20 of the labour act says it. You must call the unions and discuss with them. You don’t just treat them as slaves in their own country and you want us to keep quiet.”

Unfortunately the same Nigerians being fought for have been taking a swipe at the honourable minister and the present government for this threat. Hauling all manner of attacks on the present government and the minister. It even degenerated to political party attacks. Was Ngige wrong in his assertions?

Let’s take a look section 20 of Nigeria Labour Act.

20. (1) In the event of redundancy-

(a) the employer shall inform the trade union or workers' representative concerned of the reasons for and the extent of the anticipated redundancy;

(b) the principle of "last in, first out" shall be adopted in the discharge of the particular category of workers affected, subject to all factors of relative merit, including skill, ability and reliability; and

(c) the employer shall use his best endeavours to negotiate redundancy payments to any discharged workers who are not protected by regulations made under subsection (2) of this section.

(2) The Minister may make regulations providing, generally or in particular cases, for the compulsory payment of redundancy allowances on the termination of a worker's employment because of his redundancy.

(3) In this section "redundancy" means an involuntary and permanent loss of employment caused by an excess of manpower.

Did any of the banks follow any of the processes outlined in the Labour Act?

As a matter of fact many Banks have even cowed their staffs into a position where they are not allowed to form any union or join any union within their establishment. Many Nigerians workers don't even know this is very wrong.

Let’s take a look at Section 9 subsection 6 of the Nigeria Labour Act.

(6) No contract shall-

(a) make it a condition of employment that a worker shall or shall not join a trade union or shall or shall not relinquish membership of a trade union; or

(b) cause the dismissal of, or otherwise prejudice, a worker-

(i) by reason of trade union membership, or

(ii) because of trade union activities outside working hours or, with the consent of the employer, within working hours, or

(iii) by reason of the fact that he has lost or been deprived of membership of a trade union or has refused or been unable to become, or for any other reason is not, a member of a trade union.

Now my question is are private sectors exempted from the Nigeria Labour Act? A big NO, both private and public sectors are bounded by the Law.

Many Nigerian workers don't even know there rights are being trampled upon by their employers. If you go through all the contents of the Labour Act, you will be amazed at how much your rights have been trampled on. Unfortunately it is already a way of life, that even when a minister tries to correct the abnormally, the slavery mentality kicks in, the political differences kicks in, the hypocritical hate kicks in, and the whole process is stalled again.

Enough of hiding under the guise of scaring investors away. Any investor who have good intentions for Nigeria and her citizens, and are not coming to milk/use and enslave Nigerians will not be scared because of threats or sanctions occasioned by laid down laws being flouted. They knew the law before the came to invest. These investors abide by the laws in other countries and come to Nigeria to turn her citizens to slaves in their own country.

NIGERIANS, ENOUGH OF THIS SLAVERY MENTALITY!

Please Note; This applies to all private sector. I only used the banks as a case study because of the honourable minister's threat to withdraw licenses of defaulting banks.

Koboko69 (Nairaland)