BARELY a week after the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, apprehended the planned strike by workers in the Power Sector, under the aegis of the National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, and the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies, SSAEAC, indication of fresh tension in the sector has emerged over perceived renewed insincerity by the Minister of Power and those driving the controversial Power reforms.

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, and Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, have promised to submit list of employers contravening the Pension Reform Act, PRA, 2004, to the National Pension Commission, PenCom and Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity.

AS NIGERIANS continue to express shock and disbelief in the ongoing probe and unearthing of the wanton corruption and unbelievable wickedness in the defunct Deferred Pension Scheme, DPS, also known Pay As You Go, PAYG, workers in the nation’s textile industry, have said the matter should not be treated as an economic crime, but a treasonable crime.

THE issue of the upsurge in expatriates and expatriate quota abuse in Nigeria has remained topical in the nation’s employment system. Organised labour, civil society groups and other concerned Nigerians have continued to see the increase and abuse as not only an economic crime, but also compounding the employment crisis in the country.

WORLD Federation of Trade Unions,WFTU, umbrella body for 82 million workers in 120 countries including Nigeria, has declared its support for Nigerian workers against unfair labour practices and policies.

ORGANISED Labour in Adamawa State, has condemned the move by the state House of Assembly to pass a bill seeking to prohibit strikes by essential service workers into law.

THE word “revolution” to many, simply means forcible overthrow of a government and installation of a new one. But for the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, revolution means something else.

MINISTER of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu has warned Nigerian workers against “wild-cat-strike,” saying that it has become fashionable nowadays for trade unions to go on strike in utter disregard of rules and regulation.

Speaking, President of NLC Comrade Abdulwahed Omar, commended the textile union for its consistent struggle for the revival of textile industry, saying their efforts had yielded fruits with the reopening of United Nigeria Textile Plc, Kaduna and the relative stability in the sector.

Military Pensions Board, MPB, has said the late elder statesman, Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu alongside other pardoned soldiers that fought on the side of the defunct Biafra during the Nigeria Civil war, have been paid their pensions and arrears totaling N1.5billion by the Federal Government.

THE ancient of Benin City was thrown agog a week ago when the Edo State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC and the Trade Union Congress, TUC, counterpart, held a solidarity rally, declaring support for the re election bid of Governor Adams Oshiomhole, immediate past President of NLC.

ON Tuesday, March, 2011, at the floor of the Senate Nigerians watched in total shock another assault against Nigerian workers and its peoples through the anti-workers’ Bill sponsored by Senator Heinekken Lokpobiri, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Senator from Bayelsa State seeking to make it unlawful for the trade unions in Nigeria to embark on any strike without obtaining thepermission of the different organs of the union through a ballot.

PARA-MILITARY pensioners are demanding for the sack and probe of the activities of Pension Reform Task Team led by Acting Director of the Customs, Immigrations and Prisons Pensions Office, CIPPO, Mr. Abdulrasheed Maina, accusing the team of compounding their pains and suffering.

ABUJA-The Federal Government has called on Pension Fund Administrators, PFAs, to fast-track the payment of benefits to the next of kin to deceased worker especially federal civil servant to alleviate the sufferings of the deceased family.

THE Five days public hearing held by the Senate joint Committee on Establishment, State and Local Government probing pension administration in country under chairmanship of Senator Aloysius Etok in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, did not only expose the rot in the administration of the defunct deferred Pension scheme, otherwise known as Pay-As-You-Go, it also opened a can of worms.