Why ASSBIFFI demands immediate reconstitution of labour advisory board

For organised labour to surmount difficulties arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Labour Advisory Council (NLAC) would have to be urgently reconstituted.
President of the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution (ASSBIFI), Oyinkan Olasanoye, at the fourth quadrennial delegate’s conference of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) in Abuja, said, until the NLAC, established in line with the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 144 on Tripartite Consultation and Social Dialogue, which Nigeria has already ratified, is reconstituted, government and employers would continue to deny workers their right to participate in decisions affecting the interest of workers.
“As a matter of urgency, government should reconstitute the NLAC (the highest labour advisory body to government), which has been moribund since over 10 years,” she said.
According to the ASSBIFFI president, the coronavirus disease, which was first confirmed in Nigeria on February 27, 2020, and declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, has further exposed the “challenges facing the trade unions movement in Nigeria.”
These, she said, include poor enforcement of labour laws, lack of political will to sufficiently review obsolete labour laws, dearth of experienced and committed union leaders, government’s unilateral decisions on sensitive national issues affecting workers and lack of respect for collective bargaining agreements.
She said, “With the advent of COVID-19, the role of frontline workers (all workers are basically essential) and the gradual change of work methodology to remote and automation, the following are some of the new challenges being faced by the labour movement in Nigeria.
“As automation increases, those with inadequate skills may lag behind and unemployment rate could soar. Labour leaders should bargain for better compensatory measures, legislations protecting the rights of workers and ensuring adequate training for upskilling, right-skilling and skills acquisition. We need to improve use of technology to expand our campaigns, and for accessibility to remote and emerging workplace trends.
“Another challenge is not only about employers replacing workers with machinery, but the employment of flexible workforce such as outsourced workers without commitment towards social protection, decent wages, and bypassing of other workplace responsibilities. We need more capacity-building to equip us to organise and negotiate in a complex environment, especially as presented under this COVID-19.
“Employers, most especially those in the organised private sector, will seize this as an opportunity to pursue anti-union and union-busting agenda, such as provided in Section 45 of the being amended Banks and other Financial Institutions (BOFI) Act, 2004, where the president is empowered to proscribe any union in the banking sector whose activities he suspected to be against the economic interest of the nation.”
She added that COVID-19, as occupational disease will lead to new public health challenges where infrastructure and sanitation provisions are inadequate, stating that trade unions need to be strengthened with technical and professional competency to negotiate for better infrastructure, social and economic development.