The minister of labour and employment, Dr Chris Ngige and leadership of Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) are heading for another war, barely one week of ending the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) eight months’ strike.
NLC president, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, who, in his reaction against the insistence by Ngige on registration of new labour unions, said, he wondered why the same ministry, which established the law banning two labour unions in the same establishment, should turnaround to violate the law.
Wabba, in his response to the letter by the minister said, it is misstep in registering CONUA and NAMDA, that will run parallel with academic union and medical and health respectively.
“Honourable minister, your letter under reference was high on the need for correct interpretation and application of the law, hence, you again quoted Section 3(2) of the Trade Union Act T4 CAP 14 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 which you also made a heavy weather of in the event where you presented trade union certificates to CONUA and NAMDA.
“In your letter under reference, you claimed that the provisions of Section 3(2) which expressly forbids the Minister of Labour from registering a trade union where a trade union exists does not apply to the regrouping of trade unions. We wish to point out to you that on the basis of law and practice, your position on this matter is fatally flawed and represents a twist of the clear provisions of the law to serve a premeditated purpose,” he stressed.
In addition, he said, “First, the full rendition of the provisions of Section 3(2) of the Trade Union Act below shows that there is no differentiation whatsoever in the provisions of Section 3(2) of the Trade Union Act.
“No combination of workers or employers shall be registered as a trade union save with the approval of the Minister on his being satisfied that it is expedient to register the union either by regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or otherwise howsoever, but no trade union shall be registered to represent workers or employers in a place where there already exists a trade union.
“We want to draw the attention of the honourable minister to the fact that the underlined texts from the citation of Section 3(2) above which expressly forbids and restricts the Minister from registering unions in sectors where a trade union already exists is anchored on the word “register” which applies to both regrouping of existing trade unions or registering a new trade union.
“The legal language used therein is “shall” which in ordinary legal parlance imposes strict observance and total compliance. This rule is derived from Section 45(1) of the 1999 Constitution which regulates Section 38, 39, 40 and 41 and which reflects domestication of ILO Conventions 87 and 98 and other constitutional provisions,” he added.
