LASRERA Bill: TUC wants Civil Service Commission, Public Service Office carried along.
The Lagos State branch of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, has called for the involvement of Lagos State Civil Service Commission and the Public Service Office in the whole procesess of establishing the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Agency (LASRERA).
At a public hearing recently in Lagos, the branch secretary, Abiodun Aladetan, made known that the bill which seeks to regulate the real estate industry having passed second reading in the state house of assembly should involved the aforementioned Commission and Office during the recruitment process of personnel into the yet- to-be -established agency.
Acccording to him the reason for this is to protect interest of prospective personnel (employees) of the Agency who would become members of TUC in the state noting that if salient issues are not factored into the bill now it could cause some unwanted disharmony between the Agency and it’s employees and the state at large.
He affirmed thus, “Regarding LASRERA Bill, we insisted that the Civil Service Commission and the Public Service Office should be carried along during the recruitment process of personnel in the agency because the agency will have the power to recruit. In most cases, when you give them such powers to recruit, they also translate it into power to fire, so we don’t want that. Hence, the need for them to carry the Lagos State Civil Service Commission along is paramount.
“We also want the rules of engegment between management and staff to be that of public service rule and other extant circulars and scheme of service. The bill also need to include powers to deal with default in mortgage payment; ensure insurance cover for mortgages; protection from loss of property for 12 months in case of loss of employment.”
He added that the bill should state categorically what constitutes a default in mortgage payment and the acceptable recovery process; the rent protection of three (3) months in case of loss of employment and modalities for foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in real estate with govt backing or guaranteeing for foreign exchange (FX) repayment.
