By Rosemary Onuoha
The federal government should enact a law that will make it impossible for employers of labour to casualise workers because many employers use casualisation to dehumanise their employees.

Mr. Segun Oshinowo, director general of Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) who stated this at an interactive forum with Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) in Lagos noted that most employers deliberately casualise workers to deprive them of benefits.

Oshinowo maintained that the government should do well to terminate casualisation of workers as the trend has impoverished rather than enrich a lot of Nigerian workers.

The NECA DG lamented that casual workers are not entitled to health schemes, insurance schemes, pension scheme, gratuity as well as other benefits that staff members are entitled to even when most of the casual workers carry out strenuous tasks more than the staff, stressing that casualisation is just to get them out of benefits.

Meanwhile, NSITF and NECA have agreed to work out modalities that would ensure a successful takeoff, implementation and administration of the Employees’ Compensation Act (ECA) scheme, recently signed into law by President Jonathan.

The Act which replaced the former Workman Compensation Act was signed into law in December 2010 by President Goodluck Jonathan after being passed by the National Assembly and it makes provisions for adequate and timely compensation of employees in both public and private sectors of the economy for any industrial accident on duty.

NSIFT is statutorily empowered to manage the scheme to which employers of labour are under obligation to make monthly contributions on behalf of their employees. Under the scheme, NSITF is expected to promptly effect payment to a claimant (employee) involved in industrial accidents including those resulting in permanent disability.

Some key areas where both parties have agreed to consider for the successful implementation of the scheme include setting up of a standing committee that will regularly look into issues as they arise, commencement date, possible retention of relevant areas in repealed Workman Compensation Act, restriction of administrative cost of running the scheme to International Labour Organisation (ILO) benchmark, provision of safety and infrastructural aids in workplaces by NSITF among others.