Former labour minister erred in denying us registration -ULC

The United Labour Congress (ULC) said that the former Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, erred in denying the Congress Certificate of Registration. Mr Joe Ajaero, ULC President said this at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on the sideline of the Centenary celebration of the 108th International Labour Conference (ILC) on Thursday. […]

The United Labour Congress (ULC) said that the former Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, erred in denying the Congress Certificate of Registration.

Mr Joe Ajaero, ULC President said this at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on the sideline of the Centenary celebration of the 108th International Labour Conference (ILC) on Thursday.

Ngige, during the valedictory session, said his only regret was the inability to register the ULC as a Labour Centre in Nigeria.

According to the minister, the ULC needs 12 new unions that have never been registered been affiliated to any existing labour centre.

Ajaero said that the former minister was wrong with the excuse he gave for not approving the registration of the center.

“That is why he was saying there were few unions remaining for the ULC to be registered. The law is very clear that 12 unions can form a centre, but the minister refused to recognise existing unions and instead is talking about forming 12 new unions.

“That is a complete breach of section 40 of the Nigerian constitution which says that everybody has a right to belong to a political party of his choice, a religion of his choice and a union of his choice.

“I have never seen where it is said that for belonging to PDP, you cannot belong to APC. Even in secret societies, you can leave and join another organisation.

“It is only in the labour movement that somebody is telling you that the moment you join centre A, you cannot leave until you die.

“Whenever the Trade Union Act is in conflict with the constitution, the constitution takes precedence. So, you cannot quote the Trade Union Act when the constitution has spoken,” he said.

He added that for the minister to violate the constitution, it is wrong and unacceptable.

”We have been playing this down and that is why I spoke about freedom. The trade union act is under the constitution,” Ajaero said.

He also noted that the only letter received from the ministry since the commencement of the application process was the acknowledgement copy of the application form.

“Before you head to court, you must have evidence that you have been rejected.

“I have it on good authority that it took Trade Union Congress (TUC) about 27 years to be registered and the law was still clear that the moment you fulfill these things, you exist.

“Even before they were registered, the government was inviting them to meetings until they were registered even though they were having little disagreement with the NLC.

“They were recognised just like ULC is recognised now, but not yet registered and that was why he invited us to the valedictory speech.

“The process of doing these things are within them and if they do us a letter saying we will not be registered because you existed somewhere before and you must remain there, then we will be talking about taking legal steps,” he said.

He further said that there must be freedom of association, saying that what they see now is victimisation of unionists for belonging to unions of their choice.

“Our mission here is to tell the whole world that Nigeria and Nigerian unions are paying lip service to freedom of association. We have a situation where unions discourage the formation of new unions.

“Most unions in Nigeria, do not want other unions to exist and this is against the freedom of association in Nigeria. We have seen a lot of hypocrisy in Nigeria.

“I think the international community should know the situation in Nigeria so that if there is need for them to assist us, they will do so. We came here to highlight that the hypocrisy in Nigerian unions must cease,” he said. (NAN)