‘Some multinationals firms flout our laws’

What are the issues affecting you as a union? The issues affecting us presently have to do with loss of members. When I say loss of members is that employers in various construction companies in the country are being owed by their clients which are mainly government. And you know when we say government we […]

What are the issues affecting you as a union?
The issues affecting us presently have to do with loss of members. When I say loss of members is that employers in various construction companies in the country are being owed by their clients which are mainly government. And you know when we say government we mean federal, states and local governments. But it is not only government alone, there are also private  companies owing   contractors as we speak and by so doing most of the companies now have to see how they can cut  cost   and by so doing they reduce the number of staff in their companies and this is really  affecting our members. And this is really an issue bothering us.

Tell us the connection between your profession which is engineering and construction sector?
Basically the constructions sector involve in the infrastructural development of the country and people that are doing those infracstural works are basically engineers, surveyors, architects, artisans and the rest of them.
And in Nigeria presently, we have the capacity and  expertise to do all these construction works but most of the multi nationals till bring their experts to Nigeria and of course our government allows them to do that. And if you have the so-called experts to occupy working positions in the country and there are lot of competent Nigerians out there left out you can see that that does not speak well of the system.
Some of  them are not even qualified because they do not have the necessary document to work here the report I get from the industry is that indigenous  engineers working in most of these companies   are even the ones training these so-called experts on how to handle the works at hand.

Are you now saying that it is a bad idea to inject foreign expertise into our construction sector?
Yes, we are not saying they should not come, but the involvements of expatriates should be well reduced.  But one fact is certain; Nigerians have the capacity to handle perfectly most of these jobs being contracted out. What needed to be done is to give them the opportunities and empower them and you will see results much better than what we can get from these expatriates. And again, what we are also saying is that let us have the local content policy in the construction sector as we do in the oil sector. This local content policy if appropriately put in place will empower a lot of Nigerians.  

Tell us what local content policy entails and benefits therein for Nigerians?
Local conent policy is like what we have in the oil industry where priority is given to the locals as per employment as per even execution of jobs, local contractors are given opportunities. So if they do not have the technical know-how there is provision for training. They get the initial training and then they continue the good job. 

What have you contributed to the sector as a union towards the implementation of this local content policy?
 On our part as Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association we have brought it to the knowledge of government to see that the local content policy is adopted and implemented to create jobs for the teeming unemployed Nigerians. Because if this policy is not there these multinationals that are working here bring all sorts of workers from their countries to work here.  You won’t believe it that some of them even bring cooks, securities and all sorts of manpower to come and work here when a lot of Nigerians can effectively take up such works. So we are calling on our government to look at it as it is very necessary to develop the country. They should know that the construction sector is among the highest employers of labour in the country.  In the 7th Assembly this local content policy was proposed and went through the first and second reading but unfortunately it did not see the light of the day and we were there all through the public reading. So we hope this 8th Assembly will dust it up and look at it again and I am sure this present government that want to create jobs, create wealth will ensure that this kind of policy is in place.

As a unionist, welfare of your members and those connected with you in the chain of executing your jobs should  be of concern to you. What have you put in place to ensure that artisans who are the lowest cadre and interestingly  form the bulk of the workers you engage on sites get good wages and conditions of service?
Well, I will say this is not true because in the industry we have two unions and in the union itself we have the one for the junior staff and the one for the senior staff. And we have the employers’ representatives and the employers union where both parties meet to negotiate the condition of work for each member and when we negotiate that condition of work and it applies to all the construction industries in Nigeria. And that of course is the minimal we negotiate, so if we have a situation where people are paying less  those are  people that do not have unions, we have some indigenous companies who do not allow unionism and we have some multinationals like some  Chinese companies  who want to flout our laws and go below such minimum condition. When we have such situation we implore those workers that are being underpaid to cry to the unions and if they cry to us, of course we definitely come to their rescue.