The Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday endorsed the 30-day implementation plan of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the federal government and the organised labour represented by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC).
Briefing State House correspondents at the end of the Federal Executive Council presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong government was making efforts to file the agreement in a law court and agreed with the organised labour.
“We presented a memo from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and the memo was basically on the agreement between government and the labour. You are already aware that 15 items are parts of the agreement.
“But we went beyond mere agreement, we told them that something different this time is happening because one, part of the agreement is to file it in the court of law which we have set the process already.
“And the other one was the presidential approval. There cannot be any presidential approval more than the Federal Executive Council. So we presented them to the Federal Executive Council. We analyzed every aspect of the agreement to show its genuineness and also provide for a harmonious and good industrial relationship and that was why it was presented and it was approved for implementation.
“It was agreed that within 30 days, there must be evidence of implementation and that was the basis of presenting to the Federal Executive Council the memo the Federal Executive Council also approved it and within these 30 days, we will go on with the implementation of the agreement between labour and government,” he said.
The minister said the Ministry of Labour and Employment met with the factional leaders of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) as part of the agreement with organised labour.
He said the federal government is taking a decisive decision against external interference in union activities.
“Item six in the MoU is about interference specifically with issues that were about road transport workers. Immediately the next day, we embarked on meetings between the two organisations.
“As of today, they have already reached out and have concluded that of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria, RTEAN, today they are making a report to the ministry about their agreement because they went into agreement too and we are also going to get back to their parent association.
“The next one is the NURTW. Last week we were with them. Of course, if some of you were there, you knew why we postponed it, I reminded them that we are keeping to the date of the agreement but they said they cannot strictly keep to the date because it is very important to them that we realized the aim. So we shifted the meeting till tomorrow. Today, we are going to get the report, by tomorrow we will fix a meeting.
“The reason why we presented these items to the Federal Executive Council is for them to note and approve that after these things we will not want to be tolerating interference into union activities.
“But those that are pending are within the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment. Our own is to dispense with conflicts and we are going to continue to do that these two items we have mentioned, were the particular things they hammered on when we met. By God’s grace in the next few days, those ones are going to be sorted out,” he said.
POST AUTHOR: Abdullahi M. Gulloma
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