The organised labour and the Kaduna State government have agreed to set up a ten man committee to address all the contending issues in the recent face off between them.
This is the outcome of the mediation by the Minister of Labour and Employment Dr Chris Ngige who invited the two bodies for a reconciliatory meeting in Abuja on Thursday.
The Minister said that Kaduna State is already engrossed in many security issues ranging from kidnapping to banditry warning that the federal government will not watch the situation deteriorate to the detriment of the citizens.
Ngige said that the meeting recognised that the current impasse was caused by communication gap between the Kaduna state government and the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC .
Addressing the media after the meeting which lasted over four hours, the Minister said that the meeting resolved to constitute a ten man Bi-partite Committee comprising six representatives of the Kaduna State Government and three officials of the NLC.
The terms of reference for the Committee according to the Minister who read the communiqué are, “…to engage further with the objective of reverting with a work plan on how to integrate the provision of section 20 of the Labour Act CAP LFN 2004 to resolve the impasse between the State Government and the NLC.
“The meeting also resolved that the Committee should have as Chairman, the Head of Service of the Kaduna State Government and assisted by a Deputy National President of the NLC.
“The Committee is expected to revert with the work plan for peaceful resolution of all issues in contention to the Honourable Minister of Labour and Employment by Tuesday , May 24.
“The work plan is to itemize the structure and sub-structure in the State and Local Government of their activities”, he said.
Dr Ngige also said that this also includes the time of commencement and envisaged final tenure of the Committee adding that it should make recommendations if in its wisdom it thinks the committee should be a Permanent Standing Committee.
According to him, the meeting agreed that there shall be no further industrial action on these issues and “no worker shall be victimized on account of his or her participation in the Industrial action”, the Minister said.
The Nigeria labour Congress NLC and the Trade Union Congress TUC, had shutdown economic activities in Kaduna State with a five day warning strike and protest against the sack of thousands of workers by the State government among other things.
The action was suspended after three days due to the intervention of the federal government through the Ministry of Labour and Employment.
Earlier during the meeting, the NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba listed the grievances of organised labour including alleged retrenchment of workers by the Kaduna State Government, compulsory retirement of workers on Grade Level 14 and above and compulsory retirement of workers who have attained the age of 50 years irrespective of their Grade Levels.
Others according to Wabba, are the reduction of the staff strength of Local Government to 5O in each of the 23 Local Government Areas (LGAs) and the casualisation of workers on Grade Levels I-6.
He said that all these happened because of the policy of the Kaduna State government to right size without following the due process of the law in declaring redundancy.
But the Kaduna State government said that all the reforms it had carried out is aimed at improvement for public good.
Speaking through the Commissioner for Local Government Affairs, Jafa’aru Sani, the State government condemned what it called “an act of lawlessness” by the NLC to cripple the economy of the State.
Nnenna.O
