President Muhammadu Buhari has urged the in-coming administration to continue to respect workers’ rights by observing the four pillars of decent work.
The President who spoke at the Workers’ Day Celebration at the Eagle Square, Abuja yesterday, said these include promoting jobs and enterprises, guaranteeing rights at work, extending social protection, and promoting social dialogue for consensus building and maintenance of a sound national industrial relations system.
The President said that the elements of decent work concur with his commitment to reduce poverty and forge a path to achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, and ultimately peace and security in communities.
Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha at the occasion, Buhari said: “The government affirms the need for the enthronement of decent work, which sums up the aspiration that all people have for their working lives; for work that is productive, delivers a fair income with security and social protection, safeguards basic rights, offers equality of opportunity and treatment, prospects for personal development and the chance for recognition and to have your voice heard.
The President said these elements of decent work concur with his administration’s commitment to reduce poverty and forge a path to achieving equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, and ultimately peace and security in communities.
On their parts, the the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) lamented that Nigerian leaders have continued to treat workers with disdain with welfare being handled as though it’s charity, despite their immeasurable contribution to the growth and development of the nation.
In a speech jointly read by the NLC and TUC presidents, Joe Ajaero and Festus Osifo respectively, the Congresses questioned why a government would owe salaries of its workers for years without any remorse, asserting that any nation that is thinking seriously about development will not joke with its workforce.
The Organised Labour noted that societies cannot make progress if workers are not treated fairly, advising that if the government and social partners want increased productivity then, they must be prepared to treat workers better.
The Labour movement said the country’s just concluded general election remains the most distorted, corrupted and abused, saying that it marked a dangerous watershed in the nation’s political engagement as a people and as a nation.
