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NLC partners NECA to protect workers

By Gloria Nwafor 
06 August 2020   |   4:20 am
The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has pledged its commitment to partner with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), to safeguard workers’ rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Wabba

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has pledged its commitment to partner with the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), to safeguard workers’ rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The union said it would work with the private sector through the social dialogue process to prevent further loss of jobs.

The union also promised to uphold the health and safety standards of Nigerian workers, as well as ensure the promotion of enterprise through decent job, employment opportunities, and economic prosperity.

Giving a virtual remark at NECA’s 63rd yearly general meeting recently, NLC Secretary General, Emmanuel Ugboaja, admitted that the collaboration between the employers and the organised labour has yielded better outcomes.

He attested to the recent Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that was signed recently, to enable the social partners to address the fallout of COVID-19 in Nigeria, especially on the workers.

Ugboaja, who maintained that the MoU further identified critical areas of mutual needs by the centres, said the aim is to promote the health of Nigerians, protect jobs, and provide for the livelihoods of millions of Nigerians.

He said: “As organised labour, our major concerns going forward include job security, rights at work, social protection and occupational health and safety for all workers in the face of COVID-19 pandemic.

“While we continue to call on the government and private sector employers to provide adequate and preventive facilities to frontline workers at the workplace, we will use the framework of the workers, who fall ill, are provided with basic needs to recover and reinstated safely at their positions at work.

“Given the broad nature of challenges of the pandemic, we will continue to support the government to safeguard the health of workers and citizens. It is only a healthy workforce that can guarantee sustained productivity.”

On the nation’s economic growth, he restated the union’s commitment to also work with NECA to put pressure on the government to provide businesses with palliatives, rather than increasing taxes and interest rates to keep businesses and maintain production at COVID-19 levels, as well as to keep jobs and income.

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