Court fixes may 15 for hearing pending applications between Otudeko’s firms, Ecobank
Labour appeals hike in petrol, electricity price, Nigerians suffering
By Modupe Shodeinde
The organised labour has appealed to the Federal Government against any plan to increase the price of electricity or petrol to avert crisis in the economy.
Babatunde Olatunji, President, National Union of Chemical, Footwear Rubber Leather and Non-Metallic Product Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), made the appeal at 29th Annual Industrial Relations seminar of the union in Ibadan on Monday.
According to Mr Olatunji, any plan to increase electricity or petrol will be a wrong step and the organised labour will do everything within its capacity to resist it.
He noted that power supply in Nigeria currently stands at 4,000 megawatts for about 200 million population compared to South Africa with 58,000 megawatts which has 50 million population.
”Industrialisation cannot take place in the absence of power. Inadequate infrastructure like bad road network is also a challenge. From the source of raw material to the market areas is dilapidated, the roads network are no longer motorable,” he said.
The NUCFRLANMPE president said that governments at different levels needed to make the manufacturing sector to thrive by giving attention to factor that promoted industrialisation.
”Government should ensure adequate power, security of lives and properties as well as regulate multiple taxation and charges to allow manufacturing companies survive, thus promote Gross Domestic Products in the country,” he said.
The labour leader further said that the effect of socio-economic crises and COVID-19 pandemic on industrial relations was evident in the high number of job losses arising from redundancy and factory closures.
He said that the management of some organisations in a bid to maximise profit make staff to work for more than eight hours without overtime payment while many permanent employment are converted to casual.
He urged the management of affected organisations to treat all workers with dignity whether casual or permanent employment and also respect the International Labour Organisation’s law on workers right to form or join a union irrespective of their status.
