The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Labour

  • NLC threatens to shut down activities if FG increases fuel price in 2022

     

    Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had after its organs’ meetings recently threatened to shut down activities nationwide should the Federal Government increase the pump price of petrol in 2022.

    Secretary General of the Association of Senior Civil Servant of Nigeria (ASCSN), Bashir Alade Lawal, in an interview with Daily Sun, yesterday,  vowed that the threat by labour would be enforced saying  it would be detrimental to the overall well-being of citizens to allow the government  have its way on the policy.

    He said an increase in pump price of petrol would exacerbate crime as petrol was like an exchange rate which affected every facet of life in the coun

    “Our response to the proposed fuel price increase? It should be spontaneous. We would not play to the gallery. We are already down and they want to add to the problem. Nobody is going to run out of the country. We are all going to be here to see the consequences of what they are planning,” he said.

    Lawal said labour does not believe in the government’s planned palliative of N5,000 to 40 million Nigerians to cushion the effect of the planned increase in price of petrol.

    “They are not going to give anybody anything. I can say it with every sense of responsibility. The last one they did, they set up a palliative committee in which I was a member.  Initially, what they told us was that there was N600 billion palliatives fund in the kitty which we are going to appropriate to different sectors of the economy to cushion the effect of COVID-19.

    “Our own memo, that is TUC, was about 50 something pages, while NLC was higher. The two of us met to harmonise it. After our second meeting at Bolton Hotel in Abuja, I stopped going for the meeting because I was dumbfounded when the NNPC man said nobody promised anything. Till now, nothing has come out of it.  They are just deceiving us with lies. They won’t give anybody any N5,000.”

    The labour leader said measures ought to have been on ground and running  for at least one year before the government could come up with this policy,  so that the effect would not negatively affact citizens.

    “But here, we don’t have anything like that. You see, it’s a normal thing to subsidise things because it happens globally. But now they have removed almost everything. So at the end of the day almost 70 per cent of the resources of the state that should have gone to all these areas, they now appropriate it to themselves. With that, they have more than enough to share and that is why they are misbehaving and people are suffering.”

    NLC at its meetings in Abuja penultimate Friday had scheduled a nationwide protest for January 27 and February 1, but with a clause that it would not wait till then should the announcement on fuel price hike come before the scheduled dates.

    The NLC charged the government to promote local capacity to refine petroleum products for domestic use.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Labour calls on FG to review Pension Act 2014 to protect the interest of workers and pensioners.

     

    The Nigeria Civil Service Union has called on the Federal Government to make necessary amendments to the Pension Act 2014 to protect the interest of workers and pensioners in terms of gratuity payment.

     

    The labour union condemned in strong terms the refusal of government/employers in the public service to pay gratuity to retirees under the contributory pension scheme, which they lamented had “caused the death of many pensioners and make others destitute.”

    President, Nigeria Civil Service Commission

     

    In a communique at the end of an emergency meeting of NCSU National Executive Committee in Abuja signed by the National President, Lawrence Amaechi; and General Secretary, Bomoi lbraheem in Ado Ekiti, the NEC canvassed “very strict implementation of penalty instituted in the Pension Act 2014 as amended for all defaulting government institutions in order not to deprive pensioners the opportunity to enjoy the fruit of their labour.”

    It expressed sadness over the “lack of political will by the Federal and state governments to deploy necessary fund to defray their own share of the contributions to pension fund administrators.”

     

    The NCSU also bemoaned “the unprecedented anomalies identified in the contributory pension scheme implementation policy guide despite a very strong capital base in the National Pension Commission.”

     

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.punchng.com

  • Buhari and Governors to discuss Fuel Price on Thursday

    Governors of the 36 states will discuss the issue of fuel price on Thursday.

    Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, disclosed this on Sunday after a bipartite meeting of the Federal Government and the organised labour at the Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa Abuja. Leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress represented the organised labour.

    Briefing journalists on their resolutions, Ngige said labour had investigated the report of the Technical Committee on Premium Motor Spirit Pricing Framework as agreed at the last meeting and made its submissions, even as the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) presented its report.

    He said: “The labour side saw that NNPC were making some points and like I said, it is work in progress. Governors are going to discuss this on Thursday. They have discussed this at the National Economic Council (NEC) and so everybody is involved because we find ourselves in dire straits. There is no money for subsidy.

    “The NNPC said what they are doing is import dependent. Deregulation is import dependent but they are doing bulk purchasing. So, they can get discounts. They are also using foreign exchange that is discounted for them. They are not buying from the parallel market. All these things will be put in basket and a price will emerge from it.”

    Prodded further by journalists, Ngige maintained that the Federal Government has finished with the organised labour on the issue of fuel price.

    On the issue of electricity tariff, the minister disclosed that the meeting adopted the report of its Ad-hoc Technical Committee on Electricity Tariffs, made some adjustments and transformed the committee into an implementation committee to implement the recommendations made, including mass metering.

    “You will start seeing members of the committee with the Minister of Power, going around now and making sure DISCOS put meters for people, because there are reports that they don’t want to be distributing meters and that they want to be doing bulk billing and estimated billings and we don’t want that.

    “There is also a resolution as regards gas companies reducing gas pricing for gas sold to power companies, GENCOS and the rest of them, so that the price of electricity per unit will go down and the consumers will benefit from it. We have given the marching orders for them to do so.

    “Some paper works have to be done and once that is done, price of electricity will go down and once it goes down, the consumers will benefit.”

    He said the committee also recommended that those forcefully migrated by distribution companies from lower paying bands C and D to upper bands A and B should petition the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)

    “They will be brought back and the DISCO will be sanctioned.”

    Ngige, however, announced that the social dialogue between the Federal Government and labour has been adjourned to April as the two standing committees are still working.

    Earlier, Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustafa, congratulated the organised labour for their sacrifices at this time of economic difficulty, which has been rewarded with Nigeria’s exit recession in the third quarter of 2020.

    He said all the projections, including the reports of economic sustainability committee put in place with robust response to COVID-19 pandemic provided clear evidence that Nigeria was on its way to exit recession in the first quarter of 2021 ‘but we beat them to it in the third quarter of 2020’.

    “This could not have been achieved without the support of the organised labour and the working population of the country because you were the one that drives the economy and ensured the petroleum sector, the lifeline of the country’s economy, is not disrupted. If we have had disruptions, it would have been difficult for us to exit recession in the first quarter of 2021, let alone, the fourth quarter of 2020.

    Mustafa thanked the leadership of the organised labour for the maturity they have always shown to the discussion of very important national issues and expressed optimism that they would achieve whatever they want “if the spirit is sustained.”

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Labour calls for a reduction in electricity bill by 40 percent

     

     

     

    There is a stalemate in the push for electricity tariffs reversal championed by Organised Labour.

     

    Labour is pushing for a 40 per cent reduction following September’s increase by the Federal Government.

     

    Labour’s argument is based on findings that gas, a major component of the Distribution Companies (Discos), should not be sold in dollars.

     

    According to Organised Labour, the product should be sold to Discos at $1.50, as against $2.50, even if it is to be sold in foreign currency.

     

    Organised Labour found that the Discos consume 70 per cent of the gas generated in the country, wondering why the government has to always increase tariff.

     

    A source close to the seven-man committee set up by the Federal Government faulted the continuous sale of gas to Discos in dollars.

     

    After an increase in electricity tariff in September last year, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Ayubba Wabba and that of the Trade Union Congress, Quadri Olaleye, threatened to embark on strike.

    After several hours of horse-trading, the proposed strike was suspended, with Labour and the Federal Government agreeing to set up a committee to review the increase.

    The committee submitted an interim report, which recommended a temporary suspension of the tariff.

     

    In January, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued an order to DisCos – signalling an increase in electricity tariff, but the move was suspended.

     

    However, a source close to the committee, who pleaded anonymity, said NERC has not stopped in its plans to push for an increase in tariff.

     

    The source, who is a Labour chieftain, accused the regulator of being in bed with both the DisCos and Generating Companies in the push for an increase in electricity tariff.

     

    The source said: “These guys are unanimous in the increase in tariff. NERC is supporting them (Discos and Gencos) but we are after NERC because the indices for the review are actually faulty and you can’t get a perfect tariff review based on a faulty premium.

     

    “By the time you dollarise gas, you are giving them (discos and gencos) gas at one dollar fifty cents and then electricity that consumes 70 per cent of gas generated in the country, instead of theirs to be down, they are giving them at two dollars fifty cents. That is what we discovered.

     

    “Even if you are to insist on giving it in dollars; which is wrong since our currency is naira, it should be brought down to industry standard – which is one dollar fifty cents. We are taking one dollar from it and that will constitute over 40 per cent reduction in tariff.

     

    “Even at that, for using 70 per cent (of the gas produced in the country), theirs should be lower because they consume the bulk of the gas we produce.”

    The source added: “Our position is that tariff should reduce. Labour is insisting on a minimum of one dollar fifty cents for gas; that is what we are selling to other gas users in the country.

    “Labour presented a minimum of one dollar fifty cents to the Federal Government team from our findings. If you do that you will have a further reduction of electricity by over 40 per cent.

     

    “We equally insisted that inflation and foreign exchange should be reviewed. Because if you don’t do that, all these things will change next month; there will be inflation next month (February) because they would want to equally increase.”

     

    Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, who is the Chairman of the committee, said the committee was still working and its outcome will be made public when it is ready.

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.thenationonlineng.net