By Victor Ahiuma-Young

LAGOS—Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, weekend, condemned plans by Organised Labour to picket banks that recently retrenched workers, arguing that such picketing if allowed, could endanger the stability of the banks.

The umbrella body of employers in the country, called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, to rise to the security challenge of ensuring that Nigerians were not prevented from access to their banks by the planned alleged illegal labour action.

Recall that the National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, had issued the banks a picketing notice, which has already received the backing of several unions, including the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and civil society allies.

NECA in a statement by its Director General, Mr. Segun Oshinowo, claimed that labour’s action was being emboldened by the ill-conceived recent pronouncement and directive by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on retrenchment in the banking sector, which infringed on the rights and prerogatives of Employers in Nigeria.

NECA insisted that the labour law recognized the right of employer to determine the manning level for their operations, without approval from the Ministry of Labour and Employment, while respecting the provision of Section 20 of the Labour Act, where and if a labour union exists in the organisation.

The statement read:   “It was most unfortunate that the Minister’s comment has been fuelling impunity and gross abuse of rules and principles of industrial relations in Nigeria. The law about dispute settlement is clear in Nigeria.

‘’If the union has any issue with the action of the employer, it should seek recourse in the industrial court rather than take laws into its hands. We expect the Minister to call the union to order and urge them to follow due process of the law in seeking justice for their cause.

‘’In exercising their right to picket, the union should realize that such an action should not impinge on the right of the enterprise to conduct its business. There are, of course, limits to the right of picket and if the union should cross the line by encroaching on the rights of other actors in the economy, that would amount to criminality for which we expect the Police to arraign the offenders before the appropriate court.”

Oshinowo noted that Oyo State government had demonstrated a worthy example of what the authority should do in the event of unlawful picketing and strike by arraigning before the court trade unionist that had breached their immunity in the course of strike/picketing.

“The right to strike/picket or union immunity is not a license for impunity and criminality. NECA calls on the government to instill sanity into the industrial relations system, which unfortunately is currently in a state of rot, by insisting that the union conducts its affair within the context of the law, particularly the dispute settlement procedure, which actually forbids strike and picketing until the process has been given a chance to resolve issues in dispute.

‘’The government fails to compel the union to respect the labour laws and protect business from the disruptive action of an illegal picket, the employer will take government’s indifference as a signal that the government is least concerned about reviving our flagging economy,” he said.