By Bimbola Oyesola
Employers in the chemical sector of the Nigerian economy will no longer have a field day casualising workers, in spite of labour laws and disrespect for decent work as enshrined by the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
Chemical and Nonmetallic Products Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (CANMPSSAN), who sent out this signal, has warned employers against the increasing rate of outsourcing and con-tract staffing in the sector.
The union expressed its readiness to organise all contract workers in the sector in order to ensure that they are well treated and adequately compensated when leaving their organisations. The union noted that employers were taking advantage of the soar-ing unemployment rate to out-source some departments.
President of the union, Segun David, said the industrial revolution and production technology advancement globally has demonstrated the need for change in organisational settings and goals of companies and industrial survival.
This, he said, was encouraging the management of organisations to narrow down on core capitaldriven management and leave out the business of distribution, logistics, personnel and, at times, marketing to other re-lated companies.
According to him, this new trend gained prominence due largely to companies and organisations embrac-ing its workability.
He said, “Companies’ official engagement of ‘contract or outsourcing’ workers has given credence to its acceptability and engagement in labour circle.
“We have ob-served with keen interest that the soar-ing unemployment rate in our sec-tor is be-com-ing alarm-ing and employers are taking advantage of the situation to out-source some departments in their organisations.’’
The CANMPSSAN president lamented that this new con-tract/out-sourcing trend had permeated the core production organogram of many organisations and industries to the ex-tent that some employers were be-coming reckless about its application by ceding out their core production line to contractors.
He said such an exercise was unacceptable to organised labour due to its anticipated negative impact on the growth of the organisation: “Our association advised that management should be aware, and at the same time not shy away from the fact that contractors are independent workers and they are not subjected to the guide-lines, rules and procedures of the company that contracted them. Like-wise, they are not con-trolled by the employer of the company. In the event of dam-age or production loss, they are not affected, even if they are the cause of the loss and damage.
“Therefore, CANMPSSAN, as a responsive organisational growth advocator to our member companies, is asking for caution on the part of our management, noting that our sector, chemical and nonmetallic products, suffered a decline in productivity as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the target of most of our member companies. We want to encourage them not to lose sleep over this, in as much as they heed our advice and see us as partners in progress.”