Education

NLC Gives FG 4 weeks to Address Education Sector Crisis

By Web News 232

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its affiliate unions in the education sector have issued a four-week ultimatum to the federal government to resolve all lingering issues affecting the sector, warning that failure to do so would trigger a nationwide workers’ action.

The NLC and the unions also declared a “no pay, no work” stance in response to the Federal Government’s “no work, no pay” policy following the ongoing two-week warning strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU.

Speaking after a joint meeting in Abuja on Monday, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the unions had resolved to act as a united front to end the government’s persistent breach of agreements and neglect of the education sector.

Mr Ajaero said the unions involved include the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, NASU, National Association of Academic Technologists , NAAT, Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Polytechnics, SSANIP, Academic Staff Union of Research Institutions, ASURI, and the College of Education Staff Union, COESU, among others.

 “The NLC, after extensive deliberation with the unions in the tertiary institutions on finding solutions to the perennial problems in that sector, has resolved to work with the unions to find a lasting solution to the issues they have been facing all these years,” Ajaero said.

He noted that, the unions agreed to establish a framework for engagement on the implementation of existing agreements, sustainable funding of education in line with UNESCO’s 25–26% budgetary recommendation, and the review of wage structures and allowances for academic and non-academic staff.
“We discovered that those government officials sent to meetings often go there without mandates.

Henceforth, no trade union, whether in tertiary institutions or elsewhere, will go into any meeting with government representatives who lack authority to make binding commitments. You go and finish a negotiation, sign an agreement, and then go back to renege — never again,” he declared.

The NLC President explained that a coordinated team would be established to launch a national campaign for education reform and accountability, saying “We have decided to give the Federal Government four weeks to conclude all negotiations in this sector. They have started talks with ASUU, but the problem goes beyond one union. All other unions are equally involved.

“If after four weeks this negotiation is not concluded, the organs of the NLC will meet and take a nationwide action involving all workers and all unions in the country so that we get to the root of this crisis.”

Rejecting the government’s “no work, no pay” policy, Ajaero maintained that the unions would respond in kind.

“The so-called policy of no work, no pay should henceforth be no pay, no work. You can’t benefit from an action you instigated. We discovered that 90% of strikes in this country are caused by failure to obey agreements,” he said.

“You can’t refuse to honour agreements and then punish the other party. It’s a matter of cause and effect — those who cause the problem should bear the consequences. You can’t beat the child and ask the child not to cry.”

With this declaration, Nigeria’s labour movement appears poised for a major showdown with the federal government unless concrete action is taken to address the lingering crisis in the nation’s education sector.

Vanguard/Taiwo Akinola

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Labour

Make Retirement Age 65, NLC Urges FG

By Web News 139

The Nigeria Labour Congress on Thursday demanded the upward review of retirement age for all categories of civil servants.

The National President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, made this demand during the ongoing May Day celebration in Eagle Square, Abuja.

While presenting some of the demands of the NLC, Ajaero said, “It is imperative to extend the revised retirement age of 65 years or 40 years of service currently enjoyed by teachers, health professionals, and judges to all public servants.”

According to reports In 2023, Ajaero said the NLC would do everything within its power to ensure that it dialogues with President Bola Tinubu on the matter.

Already, teachers under the employment of the government at all levels are enjoying the implementation of a new retirement age, an act signed into law by the former president, Muhammadu Buhari.

Punch/Adebukola Aluko

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Labour

Ajaero Attack: NLC, TUC Issue Nationwide Strike Notice

By Web News 426

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and its Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart have given November 8, strike notice to the Federal Government over Wednesday’s attacks, abduction and battering of NLC President, Joe Ajaero, among others.

Leaders of the NLC and TUC at a briefing Friday, gave the Federal Government a six-point demand, including the immediate removal of the Commissioner of Police, Imo State and Area Commander, among other officials, for their alleged complicity in the brutalisation and humiliation of Comrade Ajaero and other workers.

Recall that suspected agents of the state and security operatives had descended on Ajaero alongside other Labour leaders, smashing their vehicles, inflicting injuries on them and dispossessing handsets, money, and ATM cards among other valuables from the Labour leaders and others who had gathered at the NLC State secretariat to begin a scheduled protest over pending labour issues.

The NLC President, other national leaders of NLC and their Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, counterpart were at the state Secretariat in Owerri to protest among other grievances, the backlog of unpaid salaries and allowances, pensions, gratuities, and non-compliance with the National Minimum Wage Act.

The attack, brutalisation and battering of Ajaero have elicited outrage and condemnation across the country.
Leaders of NLC and TUC are billed to meet on Tuesday next week to decide on an appropriate response to the attack.

Vanguard / Titilayo Kupoliyi

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Labour

Protest: NLC President in Police Custody

By Web News 492

Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, on Wednesday, allegedly arrested the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Joe Ajaero in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

The Head of Information, NLC, Benson Upah, who spoke with newsmen, noted that Ajaero was picked up at the state secretariat of the congress and taken to an unknown location.

“President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero was picked up a few minutes ago from NLC state council secretariat by heavily armed policemen in Owerri and taken to an unknown destination,” Upah said.

It was reported that the NLC had vowed to mobilise its members for a total strike in Imo state starting today, November 1, 2023.

Accusing the state governor Hope Uzodimma of neglecting workers’ welfare, Ajaero lamented that many of them have died because of the alleged lack of payment of their salaries.

He outlined some of the infractions against workers by Uzodimma, including the alleged refusal to implement previous agreements especially the accord reached on January 9, 2021, outstanding salary arrears of about 20 months, unjust declaration of workers as ghost workers, declaration of pensioners as ghost workers and unsettled gratuity arrears, among others.

According to him, approximately 10,000 pensioners have been wrongly labeled as ghost pensioners resulting in over 22 months of unpaid pensions while about 11,000 workers have been branded by the Imo State Government as ghost workers.

The NLC president also lamented the non-compliance with the national minimum wage by the state government, adding that Governor Uzodinma has resisted the use of social dialogue and collective bargaining to resolve the issues.

Punch/ Oluwayemisi Owonikoko

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Labour

Again, FG, Labour Meeting Deadlock

By Web News 374

Representatives of the organised labour on Friday evening stormed out of a meeting with the Presidential Steering Committee on subsidy palliatives scheduled to hold at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, had led his delegation to the Chief of Staff’s office, the meeting venue at about 5 pm but were soon spotted exiting the building.

The Steering Committee met the government delegation on Wednesday, where the two parties agreed to reconvene on Friday to get a brief from the FG’s subcommittees on Mass Transit, Compressed Natural Gas, and Cash Transfer.

The Steering Committee was set up by the Federal Government to draw up intervention plans to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal on Nigerians.

But on their way out, the irate labour members accused the federal government of using the meetings as a ploy to deceive Nigerians.

“They are not prepared for the meeting. That’s the truth,” a member of the Steering Committee from labour who spoke anonymously said.

“They are using cover to deceive Nigerians.

There are supposed to be three subcommittees, the mass transit subcommittee, the CNG, and the cash transfer, to brief us, the steering committee, but the government was not prepared for the meeting,” the source accused the government.

According to the labour representative, “In their (FG’s) introductory remarks, they made excuses and wanted the meeting to continue; the meeting did not form a quorum. We are a people that operate on the basis of process. So, if there’s no quorum in a meeting, what do you do? You will adjourn for lack of quorum.

“There was nobody to meet with. The Chief of Staff was not there; they are taking us like small children.”

“So, they are not prepared for the meeting. That’s the truth,” he said, maintaining that the government representatives insisted that the meeting proceed even though no quorum was formed.

However, newsmen learnt that the Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, had waited for the labour delegation alongside other team members.

But the organised labour delegation from the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress suffered slight delays upon entering the State House over clearance issues. The reason for the delay was that the names of the labour delegation were not sent to the gate early enough for clearance.

The Chief of Staff later excused himself to attend to other official matters within the Villa while other government team members waited for the organised labour to arrive.

“We were detained at the gate,” one of the leaders of the labour delegation told journalists.

Friday’s gathering would have been the fourth in a series of meetings between the FG and organised labour since the discontinuance of the petroleum subsidy removal.

This comes after the organised labour earmarked August 2 for a nationwide protest over the hardship occasioned by petroleum subsidy removal.

The steering committee last met on Wednesday, but FG’s representatives could not convince the labour leaders to shelve the protest.

“We are going ahead with the protest because we have to be emphatic on what we put in our communique, to say we’re commencing protests from the 2nd,” the NLC President, Comrade Joe Ajaero, had insisted.

But the Federal Government insists that the meetings have yielded some progress

“We’ve agreed to continue to make progress. It was a very productive meeting. The focus was really on how we fast-track a lot of the interventions that will bring relief, particularly around CNG, mass transportation, cleaner energy, transportation, and reducing the impact of the cost of transportation, the increased cost of transportation. So we’ve made good progress,” the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Ms Olu Verheijen, told journalists.

Punch / Titilayo Kupoliyi

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Labour

NLC to Parley Tinubu on 65-year Retirement Age

By Web News 474

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, is set to engage President Bola Tinubu on the agitation for extension of civil servants’ retirement age to 65 years.

The National President, NLC, Joe Ajaero, told newsmen on Sunday  that labour was not relenting on the agitation, which started under the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

Report has it that the NLC had during the 2023 May Day celebrations appealed to Buhari to extend the retirement age for civil servants.

But then Minister of State for Labour, Festus Keyamo, told newsmen that Buhari, in the twilight of his administration, would not be able to deal with the matter.

“The process to effect that change to 65 years (if it is accepted by the Federal Government) is a process that cannot be completed before the end of the tenure of Buhari.  So, I guess the new administration will have to deal with that,” Keyamo had said.

Already, teachers under the employment of government at all levels, are enjoying the implementation of a new retirement age.

When asked on Sunday, if the congress would meet with Tinubu on the matter, the NLC President said, “Yes. Only few other establishments, including the core civil service, are now left out.

“We are, therefore, demanding that the age of retirement and length of service in the entire public service, including the civil service, be reviewed upward to 65 years of age and 40 years of service.”

Also speaking with our correspondent, the National Treasurer, NLC, Hakeem Ambali, said, “Yes, we are going to negotiate that, to avert the imminent crisis and suffering of our members whose Contributory Pension Deduction were not remitted to their PFAS by a large percentage of labour employers.

“So that they (workers) are not pushed to premature death and penury, such window of five years is expected to form a transition period of normalising the scheme.”

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Labour

Ajaero Succeeds Waba as NLC President

By Web News 714

The National Executive Committee of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has named Joe Ajaero as its new President.

Ajaero, who was deputy President of the congress, emerged through a consensus as successor to the former leader, Ayuba Wabba who ended his eight-year tenure, yesterday. He was the sole candidate for the office of the union president and had also served as General Secretary of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE). He served in the Presidential Committee on Power Sector Reforms, set up by the late ex-President Umaru Yar’Adua.

Wabba was first elected in 2015 and then re-elected in 2019. He stepped down officially from the NLCS’s leadership during the 13th Quadrennial National Delegate held in Abuja.

Speaking during the commissioning of a guest house project named after Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, the pioneer President of NLC, Wabba said unionism was not only about contestations and agitations but also, resource management and investment.

Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, who was also at the event said President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration, was committed to improving the minimum wage of workers to boost productivity.

Mustapha, who was the special guest of honour, said the government was concerned about improving the welfare of public service.

He said the two-storey building was a delight for the NLC and its workers.

“These achievements and legacies are for the Nigerian people. I commend the outgoing NLC President, Ayuba Wabba for delivering the edifice that will yield additional income to the Congress,” the SGF said.

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Sun/Adebukola Aluko