Job creation is intrinsically linked to businesses and their corporate behavioural conduct. For decent jobs to be created on a sustainable basis, businesses must ensure and provide adequate rewards for efforts, which are the goal of stakeholders in the labour sector, COLLINS OLAYINKA writes.

Creating sustainable and decent jobs requires a collaborative effort between the government, which designs policies and performs oversight functions, businesses that prioritise profit, and workers who exchange their expertise for income.

Therefore, balancing these centripetal and centrifugal forces is always frictional, which often results in lockouts, protests and strikes. Stakeholders insisted that imbibing responsible business practices is crucial to not only job creation but growing businesses in the long term.

Indeed, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Nigeria Labour Congress, the International Labour Organization, and the African Region of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa) charge the government to provide incentives to encourage businesses to adopt responsible business practices.

Speaking in Abuja at the national dialogue on responsible business conduct and decent work agenda, Director of the ILO Country Office for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Liaison for ECOWAS, Dr Vanessa Phala, argued that promoting sustainable and responsible investment and business practices play a fundamental role in strategic initiatives such as Agenda 2063 to ensure that growth benefits all people and contributes to reducing inequalities.

She added that the African Continental Free Trade Area equally offered a unique opportunity to strengthen economic integration and facilitate trade liberalisation across the continent.

As the continent explores trade potential among its members, Phala pointed out that to fully leverage the opportunity, businesses must adopt practices that respect social and environmental standards to foster inclusive growth.

“The Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration) is a key international reference framework to structure our collective action. It provides clear guidance for mobilising businesses, strengthening social dialogue, and integrating decent work principles into supply chains,” she stated.

The ILO regional chief submitted that trade, investment, and enterprises hold immense potential to create employment, foster innovation, and advance sustainable development as Nigeria works towards building a resilient, private-sector-led economy, reducing reliance on oil, and promoting green, inclusive development.

Phala added that the Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration) is a key international reference framework to structure our collective action.

According to her, the framework provides clear guidance for mobilising businesses, strengthening social dialogue, and integrating decent work principles into supply chains.

She explained that by bringing together government agencies, employers’ and workers’ organisations, and businesses, the gathering offers a valuable space to discuss shared challenges and opportunities and advance policy coherence.

On his part, President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Festus Osifo, who was represented by the General Secretary of the labour centre, Nuhu Toro, stressed that the TUC believed that sustainable business practices are not only compatible with Decent Work pillars but are also essential for economic resilience, industrial harmony, and inclusive national development.

The TUC chief expressed worry about emerging troubling trends in the world of work such as precarious employment, widespread informality, unsafe workplaces, wage theft, and persistent violations of workers’ rights. He explained that these worrying trends are not the hallmarks of a sustainable or productive business environment, adding: “Rather, they are symptoms of systemic dysfunctions that must be addressed through meaningful collaboration and commitment to ethical, human-centred approaches to business.”

Osifo urged stakeholders in the business ecosystem to recognise that decent work is not a cost, but an investment. He added: “An investment in human dignity, in productivity, in enterprise sustainability, and national stability. Fair wages, safe working conditions, social protection, and respect for collective bargaining are the cornerstones of businesses that last and societies that thrive.”

The General Secretary of ITUC-Africa, Joel Odigie, maintained that the government must adopt a ‘carrot and stick’ approach in ensuring business entities respect workers’ rights as well as foster a friendly work environment.

He said: “There are incentives that the government needs to provide to companies willing to embark on responsible business conduct. Some of these companies lack the resources, knowledge and tools that can support them.”

Odigie urged the organised private sector as represented by the Nigerian Employers Consultative Association (NECA) to act within the ambience of the law, saying when businesses comply with the law, 95 per cent of what is required to be a responsible business entity would have been met.

On his part, President of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Joe Ajaero, who was represented by Head of Information, Benson Upah observed that for far too long, the story of labour in Nigeria has been one of struggle against exploitation, against disregard for basic rights, and against a system that too often prioritises profit over people.

He alleged that multinational corporations, with their vast resources and global reach, have a special duty to lead by example, but have failed to live up to such expectations.

He declared that organised labour would not tolerate foreign expatriates perpetrating practices that would not be tolerated in their home countries through the payment of starvation wages, factories where safety is an afterthought, and supply chains tainted by child labour and environmental destruction.

Ajaero stated: “Enough of the double standards. Enough to the idea that Nigeria and its workers deserve anything less than the same dignity and respect afforded to workers anywhere else in the world. We must uphold every corporation operating in Nigeria, especially the multinational corporations to the same standard that governs their operations in their countries of origin.”

The NLC helmsman urged multinational corporations to step up and stop sloganeering and talk shops and come up with concrete action. He submitted that paying living wages guarantees safe workplaces, respecting the right to organise, clean up the supply chains and be ready to make amend when harms are done to workers.

NLC also maintained that the government is at the centre of enforcing compliance with the laws, saying, “It is important that we state that without a willingness to enforce compliance to our Laws that protect workers’ rights. We, therefore, call on the Nigerian government to stand firm to strengthen enforcement, to hold corporations accountable, and to ensure that our laws match the realities of today’s economy.”

Ajaero also charged the government to ratify Convention 190, empower labour inspectors and listen to workers when they speak out about abuse. Despite prosecuting numerous strikes that paralysed businesses and disrupted movements, Ajaero insisted that such actions by the labour unions strengthened institutional responsibility, saying, “When we, therefore, play our roles through our advocacy and various labour actions, we are not the enemy but are strategically purging our workplaces of rights abuses and violations.”

We are the cure and not the disease. Government must join us to cleanse and sanitise our workplaces so that workers can work with dignity across our nation.”