BY DEMOLA AKINYEMI
ILORIN — The senate is currently putting finishing touches to a Bill that would ensure job security for Nigerians and put an end to casualisation of workers by some employers.
Chairman of Senate Committee on Labour and Productivity, Wilson Eke, said this in Ilorin when the committee visited Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, on oversight function.
Other members of the committee at the MINILS were Senators Dahiru Awaisu Kuta and Christopher Nwankwo.
Eke commended the Director General of the MINILS, Dr Niyi Olanrewaju, for his remarkable achievements at the institute since he assumed office and for his prudence in management of resources and dexterity in executing various projects of the institutes.
Eke said the decision to enact the law became necessary because of the untold hardship many Nigerian workers were going through in the hands of many shylock employers.
He said: "For those employers who derive pleasure in employing workers for perpetual casual labour, the end of the road has come when the bill becomes law in Nigeria which is going to be soon. It would be illegal to have casual workers who have spent specified years in Nigerian industries."
Eke explained that when the law becomes operational, it would make it mandatory for employers of labour to offer permanent job opportunities to those workers on casual employment after spending some minimum number of years on the job.
He noted further that the laws guiding employment in the country should protect workers rather than exposing them to the risks of job insecurity.
Eke said: "The issue of job security is very vital. It is primarily caused by lack of enough job opportunities which the Federal Government is presently addressing. So, government must indeed create more jobs because lack of job is the major cause of workers taking up casual jobs in Nigeria.
"But despite the situation, there should be a law to stipulate the minimum number of years with which a worker should work as a casual worker. Besides, such workers must be compensated if they are not given permanent appointment. We are working on this as members of the Senate Committee on labour."
The senator, while appreciating the recent commitment of more funds by the Federal Government to power sector in Nigeria said the development would boost the creation of more job opportunities as the power sector remains the pivot of all the economic indices of any nation.
He spoke on the Compensatory Acts for workers in Nigeria, urging its full implementation by the employers of labour so that Nigerian workers could live a more decent life in case of injuries to them or any other associated problems.
The Director General of MINILS Dr John Olanrewaju in his remarks called for prompt implementation of all the benefits attached to the institute as a tripartite labour training centre as contained in the legal provisions of Act 26 of 1990 that established it,, saying that the labor institute had since its inception trained over 30,000 workers across the West African sub region.
Vanguard Nigeria