Nigerian workers threaten nationwide strike, if Governor El-Rufai sacks workers

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has declared and threatened to embark on nationwide protest if Governor Nasir El-Rufai goes ahead with its plans to sack of Kaduna State civil servants.

Penpushing reports that, President of the congress Ayuba Waba posited that the decision of the Kaduna government falls short of the legal process of redundancy in the Labour Act, adding that it violates the fundamental law that guides redundancy.

“He has violated the fundamental law that guides redundancy. Section 20 of the Labour Act. It provided three very important points that must be addressed before you declare redundancy. Item 1 says the employer shall inform the trade union or workers’ representatives in this case, about the extent of anticipated redundancy. So, before you even anticipate, you must first inform the union which is the workers’ representatives”, he said

Penpushing further reports that, the congress boss said El-Rufai  failed to consult with the trade union or negotiate the payments to the workers to be disengaged, and also faulted the governor’s claims and figures on the amount expended on salaries of civil servants.

“What he (El-Rufai) quoted as what is being paid to workers as salary is not correct because we are aware that he included the salary of political office holders”, Waba stated, adding that 90 per cent of over 20,000 teachers laid off by the El-Rufai-led administration in 2017 are yet to be paid their terminal benefits.

The leadership of the union had earlier at meeting by its council agreed that the workers in the state should embark on strike, which will be followed with a nationwide solidarity strike if the Governor insists on the planned retrenchment”.

“So as I speak to you, that decision has already been taken by the national representatives’ council. The national executive council of the TUC and NLC will meet on Thursday to actually adopt that decision. When it is adopted we’re going to give you specific dates time on our that that decision will be taken’,

Penpushing also reports that, the President of the Labour Congress disclosed that the union had written to President Muhammadu Buhari to call the Governor Nasir El-Rufai to order.

The Governor, it is recalled had last week announced the plan to disengage civil servants in the state, for what was called fiscal reasons, explaining that  a significant amount of the statutory federal allocations to the state is being spent on the wages of public servants.

Penpushing further reports that, Rufai explained that the decision to sack some workers was one of the necessary moves to salvage the state’s finances, stressing that the state government has no choice but reduce the workforce.

“Therefore, the state government has no choice but to shed some weight and reduce the size of the public service. It is a painful but necessary step to take, for the sake of the majority of the people of this state,” he said in a statement

“The public service of the state with less than 100,000 employees and their families cannot be consuming more than 90% of government resources, with little left to positively impact the lives of the more than 9 million that are not political appointees or civil servants. It is gross injustice for such a micro minority to consume the majority of the resources of the State,” El-Rufai emphasised.

The Governor added that the government will give preferential treatment to those disengaged that are willing to take advantage of the state government’s various agricultural and entrepreneurship development schemes.

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