The federal executive council (FEC) has approved the
amendment of the country’s labour laws to meet the standard of the International
Labour Organisation (ILO).
Chris Ngige, minister for labour and employment, said the
council, presided over by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, granted its approval to
the amendment on Wednesday.
The minister, while speaking with journalists after the
weekly meeting, described Nigeria’s current labour laws as “obsolete” and not
in tandem with international standards.
He said the proposed amendment would include the
“occupational safety and health bill,” and “labour institutional bill” that
would establish the industrial arbitration panel (IAP) into a commission, among
others.
“The first memorandum
was to seek the council’s approval for us to amend the labour laws of the
country,” Ngige said.
“The labour laws of the country, as presently being operated
are really obsolete laws. And the ILO has pointed out that we needed to bring
our laws to be concurrent with international labour standards and conventions
and principles at work.
“So, we had to do this. It is a long journey, which was started
in 2001 by a previous administration, and at a point, the bills were sent to
the national assembly for enactment into law in 2007/2008; only one came out
after the five bills.”
‘WE CONSULTED TUC, NLC, NECA ON THE
AMENDMENTS’
Ngige said the ministry worked on the amendment based on the
recommendation of ILO and also consulted with the Trade Union Congress (TUC),
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association
(NECA).
He said the bills would be transmitted to the national
assembly for a public hearing before going to the president for assent.
“The ILO provided us with technical assistance. And we did
what we call social dialogue, and validation meetings. It was tripartite in
nature, with the trade unions council, the Nigeria Labour Congress, the
Employers Association (NECA) and the rest of them all. So we agreed that this
should be the final product,” the minister said.
“We looked at it
again last June 2022, because there were so many grey areas. And the final
product is what we brought here now for council to approve.”
The minister said the goal is to “align properly with
international conventions and statutes on labour matters”.
Add Comment