President of the Trade Union of Nigeria (TUC), Festus Osifo, and the National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Joe Ajaero, have taken conflicting stances over whose authority it is to negotiate wages and allowances on behalf of Nigerian workers with the Federal Government.
The controversy followed its approval by the Federal Government for workers across all levels for six months.
While speaking on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, Comrade Joe Ajero argued that the Union has the power to negotiate alone on labour matters based on the principle of most workers representatives of the International Labour Organization (ILO).
“TUC can negotiate along with NLC, but NLC can negotiate alone based on the principle of most workers representatives of the ILO”, the NLC President noted.
On his part, the TUC President, while also appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief on Monday, described the N70,000 agreement by the NLC President as an aberration, saying that the TUC was not carried along in the negotiations.
Osifo challenged Ajaero to produce the ILO regulation document that said either of the labour unions could negotiate on behalf of the other.
“He should show me in the ILO Regulations where it says one party is going to negotiate without the other one being there or consulted. He should show me! He should show Nigerians!
NLC determines how TUC participates”, Ajaero adding that the TUC does not submit its proposal to TUC. “It is the other way round,” he stated that the Ministry of Labour and other labour authorities will not engage with the Trade Union, as it acts alone on workers’ welfare negotiations.
The trade congress leader, in his reply, said, “As I listened to Ajaero today, I was wondering if it is the same NLC that produced the likes of Adams Oshiomole, Hassan Sumonu, Ayuba Wabba and so on. “There is nowhere in ILO regulations that says a trade centre cannot negotiate for its members. It is not there! It is just that if you are going to the ILO, it is tripartite- the labour, government and the employers.
Ajaero, responding to Festus’ position of having over 300,000 members in the federal civil service, said, “The 2005 Trade Union Amendment Act made membership of trade unions voluntary.
“It is the worker that determines the union he belongs to.
“Section 40 of the Nigerian 1999 Constitution as amended was clear that every Nigerian worker has the right to belong to any trade union, political or religious institution of his choice, which gives every worker the latitude to belong to any union of their choice”.
He argued that Osifo saying he has a good number of workers in his union does not add up, given that only one member union of TUC belongs to the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council, which consists of eight union bodies, and seven of them are in NLC.
He further argued that one union from TUC, which is a member of the joint body, has subjected its power to the joint body.
Speaking on the operation of the union, Osifo noted that “In that case, the two bodies must come together. We are not contesting the fact that NLC has more affiliates.
“But what we are saying is that you have about 60 affiliates while we have about 40. You cannot! You cannot negotiate for a body that is represented, for a body that has a trade union.
“You cannot negotiate on their behalf! It is not there anywhere!
“Yes, if we go to negotiations- I sit down, you sit down, and we agree”.
Osifo challenged Ajaero to produce the ILO regulation document that said either of the labour unions could negotiate on behalf of the other.
“He should show me in the ILO Regulations where it says one party is going to negotiate without the other one being there or consulted. He should show me! He should show Nigerians!
“ILO doctrine is that when you have more affiliates, and you are going for one of their events, it is not correct that the most represented will go and negotiate on behalf of the other one when the unions have their own umbrella.
According to Osifo, the meeting where the N70,000 transport allowance was agreed upon was not attended by members of the Council and does not represent majority consensus.
“But that meeting that took place was not the Council meeting. The Minister is not a member of the Council. Ajaero is not a member of the Council. The Council even has a quorum and the number of persons that must be seated to form a quorum. But at the end of the day, that meeting was not a JNC meeting. The members of JNC were not there!
“Again, if you see the release that was sent out by those three bodies, you will discover that after the last minimum wage, we got about a 33 per cent increment, and how does that work? Because from N30,000, we got N70,000.
“What you are supposed to do is that JNC will have to sit down and apply consequential adjustments.”
Ajaero maintained that the NLC engaged with the federal government to secure the ₦70,000 transport intervention.
“We gave the government an ultimatum; we were supposed to start an action. The government asked for four days to meet with us, and we met, and they resumed sitting after four days.
After the meeting, the 70k allowance came up”
He asserted that minimum wage demands could not be presented when the government has not set up a negotiation committee, stating that it required wider consultation among labour leaders, government officials, and employers before any wage increase can be agreed upon.
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