Bimbola Oyesola, [email protected]
Organised Labour has attributed present challenges by the manufacturing sector to the unclear economic policy direction or ineffective implementation of the economic policies of government.
President of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANPE), Goke Olatunji, speaking at the 28th Annual Industrial Relations seminar of the union in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, lamented that the economic situation in Nigeria is not adequately business-friendly.
According to him, the problem occasioned by poor policies frameworks are having their tolls on the manufacturing sector.
“The manufacturing sector plays an important role in the growth and development of a country. It is a simple logic that a country that is import-dependent cannot grow because there will be perpetual imbalances in her foreign exchange market”, he said.
He however reasoned that Nigeria’s economy would become buoyant if it begins to produce goods for export at required quantity and quality.
Drawing inference from the theme of this year’s seminar, ‘’Charting a New Course for Effective Industrial Relations In An Era of Economic Instability’’, Olatunji harped that the ability of manufacturers to produce at required quantity and quality depended on government policy to regulate and restrain the influx of foreign goods into the country.
‘’There is massive importation of poor quality and cheaper items such as toothpick, soaps, matches and many others which causes stiff competition for locally produced goods.
He said that manufacturers have started to relocate because of major challenges such as epileptic power supply, non-availabilty of gas and fuel, collapse of infrastructural amenities, bad roads and insecurities.
He also noted the increasing level of insecurity is critically affecting manufacturers as those operating in crisis ridden states find it difficult to market their products and some are producing below installed capacity.
The NUCFRLANPE president further said that the union was contending with challenges in industrial relations practice with some employers hidden under the guise of economic instability to convert regular staff to contract workers.
He said that the seminar would provide an avenue to discuss and understand the economy with a view to come up with ways to tackle issues on contract staffing, casualisation, outsourcing, redundancy and indiscriminate restructuring.
In his contribution, Mr John Adaji, President of National Union of Textiles Garments and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) advised the participants to discuss how to tackle the issue of artificial intelligence threatening the future of workers.
According to him, workers needed to review their strategy and attitude at workplaces, give more attention to productivity as the era of what he described as, ‘’banging tables are over’’.
He urged the union to sustain the programme because it was necessary to come up with an input that would bring positive change in the country to guarantee jobs and future of workers.
The first NUCFRLANPE president, Mr Kayode Akinbode charged the workers in a message tagged, ‘’balance sheets of life”, that ideas are assets to life; character was their capital; happiness their profit and bad habit their liability.
Akinbode urged the participants to take advantage of the knowledge acquired from the five days seminar to do the needful to protect their jobs.
Meanwhile, Mr Femi Oke, Executive Secretary of the Chemical and Allied Non-Metallic Products Employers Federation (CANMPEF), in a key note address on the theme of the seminar
called for collaboration between workers and employers in industrial relations issues to ensure job growth and security.
He stated that industrial relations practice must create a partnership model that would build peaceful co-existence at workplace.
According to Oke, the country was experiencing low manufacturing growth due to economic instability and only a positive Industrial relations environment could enhance job performance and develop the company.