ORGANISED Labour in the nation’s Textile Industry, has expressed concern over the continuous delay in settlement of the entitlements of workers in closed textile companies of Kaduna Textiles Limited, Arewa Textiles Plc, Finetex/Nortex Limited by the respective owners.

Under the umbrella of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, in a statement, lamented that affected workers had suffered untold hardship due to non-payment of their benefits since the unilateral closure of their factories.

NUTGTWN in a statement by Comrade Sylvester Chimezie, its Deputy General Secretary, said “with respect to Kaduna Textile Limited, KTL, the entitlements of the workers have since been computed and agreed to by both the union and management arising from the judgment of the Industrial Arbitration Panel, IAP, in September 2005 following a trade dispute declared by the union against KTL management in January 2003. Unfortunately, the management and owners of the company (19 Northern States) are yet to settle the terminal benefits of the workers amounting to N687, 073,346.00 till date in spite of repeated appeal, rallies and protests by the union and workers.”

Similarly, the union expressed disgust that Arewa Textiles, despite the judgment it also obtained in favour of the workers compelling the management to settle the un-paid terminal benefits, the struggle for enforcement of the judgment had continued without end.

According to the statement, the “union’s court case against the management of Finetex/Nortex was withdrawn to pave the way for the ongoing out-of-court settlement.  Friday March 29th, 2013, the union’s leadership led by the President, Comrade Oladele Hunsu and General Secretary Comrade Issa Aremu, were on a courtesy call on one of the Directors of the company, Alhaji Aminu Dantata in Kano specifically to facilitate the process to pay the mutually agreed sum of N250million as workers’ gratuities. We wish to reiterate that nothing (including the union dues) will jeopardize the process to ensure speedy payment of the workers’ gratuities.”

“We call on the owners and management of the closed factories to take urgent steps to settle the terminal benefits of the workers without further delay. The point cannot be over-emphasized that these workers are wallowing in abject poverty and impoverishment due to long lay off from work without pay.