The Nigeria Labour Congress has accused the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong, of allegedly trying to scuttle the implementation of the recent agreement it had with the Federal Government.
The labour movement said the minister was taking sides in the crisis rocking the National Union of Road Transport Workers.
According to the Punch, labour warned that Nigerians would hold the minister responsible if the situation results in a national industrial crisis.
In a statement signed by the NLC General Secretary, Mr Emmanuel Ugboaja, it said that the government was giving support to the illegal faction of the NURTW and encouraging them to conduct their own delegates conference, both zonally and nationally, to confer legitimacy to their action.
The NLC said, “In a shocking turn of events, the Federal Minister of Labour, Mr Lalong, has thrown a spanner in the wheel of the implementation of the labour-federal government agreement by his unmasked partiality in handling a critical item in the agreement, which is the apparent government meddling in trade union matters by siding with people who had illegally seized the National Union of Road Transport Workers headquarters with police support.”
It said the illegal group was now being encouraged to conduct its own delegates’ conference, both zonally and nationally, to confer legitimacy on their action, adding that such acts “not only constitute interference in the internal affairs of a union, in violation of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 but also represents a clear attempt to sabotage the recently ratified agreement between the labour movement and the Federal Government.”
The NLC added that it was unthinkable that a Federal Minister of Labour, “tasked with safeguarding the rights and interests of diverse stakeholders in our industrial relations landscape, would opt to take actions that could undermine the very foundations of our collective engagement.”
“The minister’s decision, which is clearly morally reprehensible and legally untenable, marks a disheartening departure from the expected standards of conduct within the nation’s industrial relations sphere.
“Despite initial assurances from the minister regarding the illegal occupation of the NURTW’s national headquarters, the democratically elected leadership, led by Comrade Tajudeen Baruwa, has not been reinstated,” it said.
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