People Reporters Reaching out to the People in Nigeria
Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige has warned trade unions and associations in the country to desist from reporting any industrial disputes to the National Assembly but the appropriate quotas.
Ngige who was speaking in an ongoing conciliatory meeting with Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) in Abuja said the proper channel was to report to their employers and if no satisfy, then to the ministry of Labour for settlement.
Speaking on the reason for the meeting, the minister said it was a scheduled meeting which was to hold by the first week of July but for unforeseen circumstances, it’s holding late.
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The minister said “Let me start by saying that this meeting is not bone out from an ultimatum given, but is a scheduled meeting which in labour palace we called CBA to fulfill our agreement. We are doing this because we adjoined the last meeting and agreed to reconvene on the first week of July to look at the level of implementation but because of some unforeseen circumstances we are not able to hold the meeting much earlier than now but is better late than never and by coincidence, you did your NEC meeting to also review the situation from your end.
“Let me advise associations and trade unions because there has been a practice of which association and unions rushing to the National Assembly committees as if they are reporting the executive to headmasters, that is a very wrong procedure because I have been speaking with the minister of Health since weekend about this meeting I am reconvening and then I discover there is a communiqué and the minister told me this morning that complain have been pass to him by the Chairman of the House Committee on Health.
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“The rule for employer/employee relationship says that you have to go to your employers first and use in house mechanism to resolve whatever are the areas of disagreement, and if you are unable to do so there is another government organ which is the Ministry of Labour and Employment. We are established and given this mandate in the trade dispute Act which is an act of the National Assembly”.
According to Ngige, “We are the one to handle your relationship and dispute with your employer and this is not only in the public sector but also in the private sector too. The unions must go to their employers and if they have some issues, they forward it here that is our job.
“ We are here to manage employer/employee areas of disagreement and to ensure we have industrial relations maliu but in the public sector, once they have a dispute with their employer they will run to the National Assembly”.
While commending the role play by the National Assembly in ensuring industrial harmony in the country, Dr. Ngige urges the workers to follow due process and made the National Assembly the last resort.
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“The role of National Assembly, we appreciate them but it should be the last resort because even here what our laws say is that when we can not handle it we refer it to first Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) which is a parastatal under the Ministry of Labour, it was under IAP that it fails that you can then go to the National Assembly or you go to National Industrial Court (NIC) is a special Court that was created for this purpose so we should act within the ambit of the law so that we don’t put the country and the labour sector in confusion all the time, so NMA and NARD you are ver educated people you should be able to follow the root of the law “.
Minister of State for Health, Sen. Olorunimbe Mamora said the workers should always report first to the ministry in case of an industrial dispute, adding that “we are not working in IPPIS to know what is happening but if you report to us, we can then take up the issue with those working there”.
The General Secretary of Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) Dr. Phillips Uche Ekpe agreed with the ministers on the need to settle any dispute inhouse but said the association is left without any other option than to honour the meeting with the National Assembly leadership.
He said most times, it was due to frustration because the employer will not carry members of the association along in most of their programmes.
According to him” we don’t report to the National Assembly, they usually call us when the media write anything about our struggle. So most times is frustration from the way the ministry of Health handles our issues, yes I agreed we need to handle our matter in the house because both those at the helm of affairs in the ministry are our colleagues, so it doesn’t appear we are washing out dirty linens outside”.
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