The controversy surrounding the registration of the Congress of Nigerian University Academics and the Nigeria Association of Medical and Dental Lecturers in Academics by the Federal Government deepened on Saturday with the Nigeria Labour Congress demanding the immediate withdrawal of the bodies’ certificates with effect.
The NLC said their registration could not stand because it contravened the laws, which had been tested and affirmed by the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, the Appeal Court and the Supreme Court.
The President, NLC, Ayuba Wabba, made the request in a protest letter to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, titled, ‘Organised labour rejects the purported registration of new trade unions for academics in Nigerian universities’.
The letter with reference number NLC/NS/E.16/654 and dated October 5, 2022, was obtained by Sunday PUNCH in Abuja.
The document was copied to the Director-General, Department of State Services, President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, all affiliate unions of the NLC and Femi Falana (SAN).
Wabba said the foundation of the laws in the NICN, Appeal Court and Apex Court was set in international labour standards, particularly the International Labour Organisation (Fundamental Conventions 87 and 98), which were some of the first ILO standards ratified by Nigeria upon the attainment of independence in 1960.
He cited some sections of the nation’s labour laws to back the NLC’s position that the CONUA and NAMDA were illegal.
“Honourable minister, in view of the foregoing, we demand that you respect the doctrine of the rule of law, especially the clear provisions of our labour laws cited, and withdraw the certificates of registration issued to the two new trade unions. While we look forward to your kind consideration of our demands, please accept the assurances of our warm regards,” Wabba emphasized.
According to him, having ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, Nigeria has domesticated the same in the constitution, especially in Section 40, which guarantees freedom of association.
The constitution, he said, went on to regulate freedom of association in Section 41(2), pursuant to public decorum and order since where one right ends, another begins.
The NLC President said Nigeria’s labour laws, in furtherance of the constitutional regulation on freedom of association, provided certain conditions for the registration of trade unions upon compliance which certificates of registration could be given to trade unions by the Ministry of Labour.
Wabba cited Section 3 of the Trade Union Act, which stipulates the conditions for the registration of trade unions thus:
“(1) An application for the registration of a trade union shall be made to the Registrar in the prescribed form and shall be signed (a) in the case of a trade union of workers, by at least 50 members of the union; and (b) in the case of a trade union of employers, by at least two members of the union. (2) No combination of workers or employers shall be registered as a trade union save with the approval of the minister on his being satisfied that it is expedient to register the union either by regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or otherwise howsoever, but no trade union shall be registered to represent workers or employers in a place where there already exists a trade union.
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