Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

FG releases guideline for contract, outsourced employees in financial sector

By Gloria Nwafor
13 October 2022   |   2:38 am
Better days are ahead for contract and non-permanent workers in the nation’s financial institutions as the Federal Government has unveiled guidelines to guarantee better working conditions.

Nigeria president Muhammadu Buhari

Better days are ahead for contract and non-permanent workers in the nation’s financial institutions as the Federal Government has unveiled guidelines to guarantee better working conditions.

 
The guideline, “Labour Administration Issues in Contract Staffing/Outsourcing Non-Permanent Workers in Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions”, which is due for implementation, is expected to improve job satisfaction and staff performance, reduce incidences of frauds traceable to discontented casual workers in the financial sector and generally reduce exploitation, as well as other unfair labour practices, capable of escalating industrial conflicts and crises in workplaces.
 
Addressing journalists during the World Day for Decent Work (WDDW), marked globally every October 7, President, Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions (ASSBIFI), Oyinkan Olasanoye and National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees (NUBIFIE), Anthony Abakpa, said the employment guideline, signed by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, provides in clear form, good industrial relations principles, as well as terms and conditions of employment to be observed by stakeholders in the sector.
 
The duo said it will also regulate conditions of employment and standardise non-permanent employment, especially in the areas of career progression, salaries and wages; disciplinary measures, health and safety; corporate performance and productivity.
 
Giving more insights into the document, Olasanoye said the request for a guideline to regulate conditions of employment of non-permanent employees in the financial sector started a decade ago, with the active participation of representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, ASSBIFI and NUBIFIE.
 
With the signing and approval of the guideline, she implored employers in banks, insurance and the financial sector to cooperate and collaborate with agencies of government and unions concerned to achieve the desired objectives and improve industrial relations practices and standards. 
 
She said: “From reliable but not empirical records available to us, most insider-induced frauds, particularly in the banks are perpetuated by disgruntled casual employees. These employees do not have the training and orientations usually given to the regular employee, they do not have that sense of belonging because of their poor conditions of employment, which open them to temptation. 
 
“To get a good justice, we must be able to know what we expect as wages, fair wage? What should be the contribution in getting a fair wage, laws and guidelines backing fair wage? There should be wage justice. There should be a process of arriving at a salary that would take them home. There should be a process for discipline and an exit package. If at the point of entry to an organisation, let us know the way out. Let the process of exit be established for every worker. 

“Today, with this guideline, the non-permanent employee can pursue a career line, unionise and draw from benefits of collective bargained agreements.

Without doubts, this guideline will bring a fresh breath of life to many in the sector, improve industrial relations, reduce the incidence of fraud and increase productivity.”

Similarly, Abakpa said: “We are going to monitor the process and confront it headlong to ensure that the rights of workers are upheld. We have mercenaries in place and we will constitute a task force to monitor the guideline to implement it.” 

Meanwhile, Consultant, Premium Education Institute, Alex Ogundadegbe, who spoke on ‘Wage Justice’, during this year’s WDDW, organised by ASSBIFI, said the fracture of the social contract through deliberate decisions by governments threatens democracy as anti-union repression and failure to ensure fair labour laws are reaching new heights.
   
Noting that the world needed a new social contract, with wage justice at its heart and to achieve this, he said “the global deficit of 575 million jobs must be closed, fundamental workers’ rights must be respected, discrimination must be replaced by equality, social protection must be extended to all and an inclusive world economy, unchained from the vestiges of colonialism, must be built.”
 
On strategies for winning wage justice, Ogundadegbe advocated high-profile street protests targeted at unscrupulous employers. 
 
For the workers’ engagement process, he called for improved communication channels at all levels of government and engaging those responsible for policy. 
 
He said workplaces do not have to be shut totally, stressing that protests and rallies could be organised, while workers are still at their duty posts.
 
According to him, nobody gains from a strike as strikes should be short-termed rather than elongated. 

In this article

0 Comments