NLC, TUC reject moving labour matters to states

The labour leaders visited the committee yesterday to protest what they called the migration of labour issues from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List.President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar told the committee that such a migration would affect the minimum wage which remains the right of workers under the law.He pleaded with the […]

The labour leaders visited the committee yesterday to protest what they called the migration of labour issues from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List.
President of NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar told the committee that such a migration would affect the minimum wage which remains the right of workers under the law.
He pleaded with the committee to reconsider its decision as 92 percent of the countries of the world put labour matters under the Exclusive Legislative List for the sake of protecting the workers whom he described as the most important resource in any country.
Omar urged the committee not to make Nigeria a part of “a global tiny dictatorship that places workers’ issues at the mercy of state governors.”
President of TUC, Kaigama Bala Bobboi, said placing labour issues under the Concurrent Legislative List would lead to having disjointed remuneration system in the country.
Describing labour as a national issue, Bobboi told the committee members that it had become necessary that some protection be provided for the workers.
NLC’s chief economist, Dr. Peter Ozo-Eson, said labour as a factor of production must not be left to the vagaries of multiple jurisdictions which would be inevitable if labour issues were taken to the Concurrent Legislative List.
Responding, co-chairman of the committee Obong Victor Attah told the labour leaders that the movement of labour issues to Concurrent Legislative List did not mean that the federal government no longer had control over labour matters.
He said being on the Concurrent Legislative List simply meant that if the federal government were to make any law regarding labour matters, such legislation will override that of any state.
The delegation comprises of all labour delegates to the conference.