The United Labour Congress (ULC), last week, submitted a letter of protest to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in Geneva, Switzerland, alleging threat to freedom of association and rights to organise.
The letter, addressed to the ILO director-general, Guy Ryder, signed by the ULC president, Joe Ajaero, noted that ILO Conventions 87 and 98 were still under severe threat in Nigeria.
“Once again, we write to inform you of the severe pressures that have been brought to bear on Nigerian workers and indeed our nation’s industrial relations framework. This is at the backdrop of our previous letters to you, subsequent reminders and current objective realities which have all gone unattended as we had requested,” the letter read.
Ajaero said the body’s recognition of the essence of the ILO framework and the abiding faith in its capacity to continue influencing positively the world of work makes it imperative for it to recount the various pressures that undermine the spirit of the ILO in the country.
He said, “It is, therefore, important that, as we celebrate this centenary that we remember that there are large swaths of territories in the globe where workers’ rights and privileges are still being variously trampled and that these include Nigeria, unfortunately.
“ULC, therefore, feels compelled to alert you again that the deprivation of Nigerian workers and the heavy infractions on their rights continues unabated and needs your urgent intervention.
“It may interest you to know that we took the liberty to protest to your home office in Nigeria via letters as to ULC’s and its affiliates’ continued exclusion from the programs and activities of the Nigeria ILO framework despite promises to the contrary. We have endured a lot but we still have enormous faith in the ILO framework to come to the aid of Nigerian workers who are presently marooned in the cesspit of suffering because they were denied the right to organise.”
He said that the union had earlier pleaded with the ILO to avail it with further steps that would be taken towards dealing with the Nigerian case on convention 98, that is, Case 23 of ILC 107 as it proceeded towards the November 2018 deliberations as promised, and the activities of the Visitation of the Technical Committee to Nigeria, but the pleas were not heeded.
“We were excluded from these activities that would have aided the fact-finding committee in their work,” he said.