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The President of the Trade Union Congress, TUC, Comrade Festus Osifo, has faulted the position of his Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, counterpart, Joe Ajaero, on which of the labour centres has the mandate to negotiate workers’ salaries and allowances with the Federal Government.
Osifo stated this on Monday when he featured on Channels Television’s Morning Brief, reacting to the controversy trailing the N70,000 transport allowance approved by President Bola Tinubu.
Speaking on the programme, Osifo expressed disappointment with the leadership style of the NLC under Ajaero.
“Listening to Ajaero again today, I really pity the Labour movement and the quality of leaders that have been inflated on the NLC,” he said.
He added, “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.”
Osifo insisted that no provision in the International Labour Organisation, ILO, prevents the TUC from negotiating for its own members, noting that the tripartite arrangement only applies when attending ILO events.
“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. And in describing that, it means that the list of the TUC members is joined together with that of the NLC and submitted to the Ministry of Labour, who forwards it to the ILO,” he stated.
According to him, collaboration between the two centres is only mandatory in that context.
“In that case, the two bodies must come together. We are not contesting the fact that NLC has more affiliates,” Osifo said.
He maintained that the numerical strength of the NLC does not give it the power to speak for the TUC.
“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 for them on their behalf! It is not there anywhere!”
“Yes, if we go to negotiations- I sit down, you sit down, and we agree,” he added.
The TUC President challenged Ajaero to provide documentary evidence from the ILO to back his claims.
“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!”
He further said, “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.”
“Let Ajaero send a document to you that proves that! It cannot be found anywhere!” Osifo insisted.
Osifo also accused the NLC President of misinterpreting the role of the Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council, JNC.
“He talked about the JNC (Joint Public Sector Negotiating Council ). I don’t truly think Ajaero has read the JNC constitution. I don’t truly think he knows what the JNC means,” he said.
He stressed the need for continuous learning in industrial relations.
“Yes, you have a Masters in 1990. You cannot use a solution of yesterday to attack today’s problem,” he said.
“And that is why in industrial relations, you need to keep updating, retooling and relearning.”
“First, the JNC means that when there are issues in the public sector, the JNC looks at it,” he explained.
Osifo clarified that the meeting where the N70,000 allowance was agreed was not a proper JNC meeting.
“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!”
He also referred to the implementation of the last minimum wage adjustment.
“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 33 per cent increment, and how does that work? Because from N30,000, we got N70,000,” Osifo said.
According to him, “What you are supposed to do is that JNC will have to sit down and apply consequential adjustments.”
He alleged that the NLC leadership applied a flat rate without proper negotiation.
“You know what Ajaero used JNC to do? Ajaero sent JNC a questionnaire and asked them to apply N40,000 each to Nigerian workers. So they took N40,000, which is the difference between N30,00 and N70,000, and applied it across board. That is why the federal workers today are earning abysmally poor,” he said.
Osifo said he had confronted Ajaero over the development.
“But I attacked him! I went to his office and told him that “Ajaero, this is wrong!” What you used JNC to do is fundamentally wrong!”
