LETTER FOR LAGOS STATE WORKERS HOUSING SCHEME. Communique Issued At The End Of A Two-Day Training Workshop Organized By The Trade Union Congress Of Nigeria, Lagos State Council On Decent Work And Employment Relations- The Impact For A Smart City, Held On Thursday 18th And Friday 19th November, 2021 At The Adeyemi Bero Hall, Alausa- Ikeja.

LETTER FOR LAGOS STATE WORKERS HOUSING SCHEME.

PREAMBLE

The 2021 training organized by the leadership of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria Lagos State Council was held on Thursday 18th and Friday 19th November, 2021 at the Adeyemi Baro Auditorium with the Theme Decent Work and Employment Relations: The Impact for a Smart City. After a careful analysis of the theme, the following observations and decisions were made.

1. The workshop brought to the attention of all participants the fact that the world of work is presently under attack and the Nigeria Labour Law now on trial due to the high reported cases of abuse of workers right in work places particularly since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Hence the need for Labour leaders to fight for workers’ rights at all times. 

2. The Workshop noted the need for employers and labour leaders to promote decent work by ensuring that adequate measures and policies are put in place to encourage social integration, create a sense of personal worth and provide a measure of quality of life for the workers in line with International Labour Organization Convention 87(1948), 98(1949) 111(1958)105(1957) etc

3. The workshop condemned in strong terms all forms of  indecent work deployed by employers under the guise of casualization, outsourcing, ad-hoc staffing, slavery, child labour, arbitrary disengagement, etc which are antithetical to the tenets of  decent work as guaranteed by several labour legislations.

4. The Workshop commended the Lagos State Government for putting the welfare and interest of workers at the front burner despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic on the resources of the State. Hence, the workshop urged other employers of Labour to emulate the Lagos State Government who continue to embark on recruitment and not retrenchment as a catalyst to rejigging the economy.

5. TUC Lagos State Council restated its commitment to sustaining robust employee-employer relations through collective bargaining, dialogue, periodic meetings, workplace tours and mutual understanding in order to retain the hard-earned industrial harmony and workers welfare in Lagos State.

6.            While commending the maturity and firmness of labour leaders across affiliates, The TUC Lagos State Council further stressed the fact that it shall not shirk its responsibilities to advocate, promote and struggle for decent work agenda that fosters availability of work which is freely chosen,  productive, sustainable, equitable, fair, secure and promoting human dignity.

7.            The TUC Lagos Council in a very strong term warned all employers to desist from actions or inactions that are capable of destroying the existing industrial peace and harmony  that Lagos State is well noted for.

8. TUC Lagos State Council further encouraged employers to promote decent work, Occupational Health and Safety, global standards, best practices, and guarantee fundamental principles and rights at work in consonance with the smart city agenda of the Lagos State government.

9.            The TUC Lagos State Council stated that employers must depart from mere rhetoric’s and jaded innuendoes but enthrone reliable objectives to create equal opportunities for women and men of different social orientations to secure decent employment and income, eschew discrimination and inequality, enhance the coverage and effectiveness of social protection for all and strengthen tripartism and social dialogue.

10. TUC Lagos State Council affirmed the timeless dictum of  Henry Ford, that “the only thing that is worse than training an employee and having them leave is not training them and having them stay”.  Therefore, urged employers of labour in Lagos State to prioritize training workers in line with the dynamics of smart city workplace and ever-evolving technological advancements, rather than sacking them arbitrarily, condemning them into the whirlpool of hopeless labour market or subjecting them to deplorable and traumatizing working conditions.

11.          The TUC Lagos State Council warned employers particularly those in the private sector that the reported and unreported cases of victimization, sexual harassment, child/forced labour, threats, bullying, arbitrary disengagements, intimidations, casualization’s, witch-hunting and repression of workers and labour leaders in the State must stop and stop NOW; failing which the Trade Union in Lagos State will not hesitate to deploy all legitimate instrumentalities of law to resist and to rescue its  members from the clutches of workplace evils, neoliberal vultures and vulgarities of the spineless oppressive employers that operates  in Lagos State.

12. Conclusively, the workshop stressed the need for both employers of Labour and Union leaders to choose negotiations and Dialogue at all times and not allow lingering labour issues to snowball into industrial actions due to the negative impact it will have on the fragile economy of the country.

Comrade Gbenga Ekundayo

Chairman

Comrade Abiodun Aladetan

Secretary