Mr Ayuba Wabba, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has raised an alarm over anti labour and workers policies by governments and private sectors across the country.
He called for synergy between the NLC and the International Lawyer Assisting Workers (ILAW) to arrest the ugly trend.
Wabba said this at the inauguration of ILAW in Nigeria through the support of Solidarity Centre on Tuesday in Abuja.
The NLC President said that Nigeria workers and Trade Union had been at the receiving end of anti labour and workers policies for obvious reasons.
This according to Wabba, was in spite of the fact that workers remained the most important factor of production, adding that other factors and their collaborators were also coming up with anti labour policies.
He said that some of them are rearing their ugly heads; the issue of outsourcing of services and casualisation are new issues that are cropping into the industrial relation milieu.
He said that there was need to approach the issue in a more coordinated manner in order to forestall the ugly trend.
Wabba said that one of the strongest pillar of democracy were the civil society and organised labour, adding that once such institutions were weaken, then there would be no basis for democracy.
“Once you weaken those institutions it is clear that democracy will be weakened and the rule of law will be weakened and this provides another opportunity for us to synergise,” he said.
The NLC scribe said that there had been a lot of changes in the world of work where even the gain made in the past by labour union were eroded around the globe and particularly in Nigeria.
He said that there was need to approach the issue from all fronts, from the legal angle in the courts by reviewing the laws which had become obsolete to continue to provide succor and defend the workers.
“When you are in the court room as lawyers we will also be on the street to compliment what you are doing in the court room and that is the whole essence of us working together,” Wabba said.
Mr Jeffery Vogt, Chairman of the Board of ILAW, said that the body would always stand for and protect the rights of workers and trade union across the globe and in Nigeria.
According to him, this is something we asked that lawyers in the world and across the cities stand and bring justice for working people.
“I have related with trade unions across the world and found out fundamentally that we are all confined to the same thing, though names of employer and the workers may be different.
“But the fundamental basis are the same and it seems what was really missing is the opportunities and what is important is that how do we help workers and we need to find a way out.’’
He said it was imperative to share victories and experiences between labour and ILAW, adding that this would enable employers to move forward with workers and trade union around the world.
He called on ILAW to rally workers around the world to join the advocate to rescue workers from bad policies.
