Federal Government of Nigeria has charged employers of labour to shun the temptation of compromising decent work conditions. The government said exploitation and other inhuman conditions and treatments often meted on employees should be avoided in line with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and agenda.
Minister of labour and employment, Chris Ngige, gave the charge when he received in audience the executives of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) led by the president, Osakpamwan Eriyo, in Abuja at the weekend.
Decent, according to the ILO, entails employment that respects the fundamental rights of the human person, rights of workers in terms of conditions of work safety and remuneration as well as respect for the physical and mental integrity of the worker in the exercise of his/her employment.
Asides the provision of better environment, decent work also involves opportunities for work that are productive and deliver a fair income, security in the workplace and social protection for families, better prospects for personal development and social integration, freedom for people to express their concerns, organise and participate in the decisions that affect their lives and equality of opportunity and treatment for all women and men.
Ngige, while speaking with the RTEAN executives, stressed the need for them to anchor their conditions of employment on the provision of decent work agenda in line with the ILO’s agenda.
“Try to provide decent work because the ILO agenda now is Agenda for Decent Work,” he said, while also charging them to ensure a proper documentation of their employees by creating a database so as to simplify their recruitment process as well as help the country manage its internal security system.
On his part, Eriyo pledged the association’s support to the government.
Eriyo, represented by the deputy national president Musa Mohammed, acknowledged the effort so far made by the government in ensuring peace in the country, saying there had been relative peace, unity and progress under the present administration.
