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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION CONVENTIONS ON FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO ORGANISE CONVENTION, 1948 (NO. 87) AND RIGHT TO ORGANISE AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING CONVENTION, 1949 (NO. 98)

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INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION CONVENTIONS ON FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND PROTECTION OF THE RIGHT TO ORGANISE CONVENTION, 1948 (NO. 87) AND RIGHT TO ORGANISE AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING CONVENTION, 1949 (NO. 98)

As mentioned last week, the International Labour Organization (ILO) intervenes in ensuring better working environments for all workers at their various places of work globally, through the instrumentality of various conventions it legislates.

Conventions 87 and 98 are two of the fundamental conventions of the ILO. The former speaks to Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise, while the latter speaks to the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining. These are the Conventions that do not only globally guarantee the rights of workers to freely associate and organize themselves under the umbrella of industrial or Trade Union, but they also empower workers through their Unions to negotiate their working conditions.

Acknowledgement and respect of their employees’ fundamentals rights as expressed by these conventions portrays an abiding employer as one that is not only labour friendly but also one that is a good social partner. Workers and their unions reciprocate loyalty of employers on these conventions with better dedication to work and ensure increased productivity.

It is important for workers to know that as they are protected internationally through the conventions of the ILO earlier mentioned, they are also protected locally to freely associate as enshrined, ultimately, in Section 40 of Nigeria’s Constitution and combined sections 12(4), 23 and 25 of Nigeria’s Trade Unions Act.

For guidance on how to be members Nigerian workers who are yet to be members of a Trade Union should endeavour to contact the Trade Union in their sector and those in the private telecommunications and communications sector should endeavour to contact the Private Telecommunications and Communications Senior Staff Association of Nigeria on her website and other various social media platforms.

THE HIGHEST DECISION-MAKING BODY OF ILO MEETS

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THE HIGHEST DECISION-MAKING BODY OF ILO MEETS

The International Labour Conference is the highest decision-making body of the International Labour Organization (ILO) which is an agency of the United Nations that deals with labour related issues.

The body meets annually in the month of June by bringing together delegations of workers, employers, and governments from the Organisation’s 187 member States.

The interventions of the ILO prominently come by way of Conventions which geared towards addressing different aspects of labour/industrial relations. Such Conventions include but not limited to the eight fundamental Conventions:

The eight fundamental Conventions according to the ILO are:


1. Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87)
2. Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98)
3. Forced Labour Convention, 1930 (No. 29) (and its 2014 Protocol )
4. Abolition of Forced Labour Convention, 1957 (No. 105)
5. Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)
6. Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182)
7. Equal Remuneration Convention, 1951 (No. 100)
8. Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111)
This year’s (2022) International Labour Conference began on 27th May and shall end on 11th June.
The copy of this year’s Social Dialogue Report titled Collective Bargaining Agreement for an Inclusive, Sustainable and Resilient Recovery can be accessed via the link below:

https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_842807.pdf

Press Conference on Huawei Technologies

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TEXT OF THE PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRIVATE TELECOMMUNICATIONS AND COMMUNICATIONS SENIOR STAFFF ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA(PTECSSAN) HELD AT HER NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS, 23, AMORE STREET, OFF TOYIN STREET, IKEJA, LAGOS ON THURSDAY 25TH, 2021

Protocols!

We are happy to have you and humbly welcome you to this Press Conference.

We have invited you here to let the world know about the unfortunate events and practices going on in Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited which shall lead to industrial disharmony and disruption of her services if not quickly arrested and mediated.

All our efforts in the past to address all the labour related issues confronting the workers in the company have been rebuffed by its management. Ultimate of which is gross disregard and denial of the workers their fundamental Right to Freedom of Association as enshrined in Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as well as Section 12(4) of the Trade Unions Act LFN 2004 and ILO Conventions 87 and 98.  Therefore, we shall be letting the management know that there will be consequences to industrial peace within the company if our demands are not met within 14 Days from this day.

Gentlemen of the Press, the issues among others are as follows:

  1. INTIMIDATION, HARASSMENT AND VERBAL ASSAULTS

It has become hallmark of the company to make workers perform their duties under duress. They are intimidated, harassed, and even threatened with sack at every slight opportunity. The use of foul languages on the workers is also prevalent in the organisation.

  1. POOR AND DISCRIMINATORY REMUNERATION

Workers in the company are the least paid among vendors in the telecommunications sector. Also, pays are discriminatory with some workers paid more than others. The closer you are to the top Chinese Management or politically inclined individuals whose influence got you into the company the higher your pay will be.

  1. ABUSE OF EXPATRIATES QUOTA POLICY

Expatriates quota policy in the country allows companies to employ expatriates to work in the country ONLY when the skills needed for the projects are lacking among Nigerians and when the expatriates are brought in each of them are expected to be attached four Nigerian employees to understudy them for the purpose of transferring the knowledge unto the attached locals. In Huawei Technologies there are numerous foreigners working in the country that have no Nigerian understudying them. It is so appalling that the Head of Human Resources in the company is a Chinese. 

  1. INCREASING SPATE OF PRECARIOUS WORK

Despite the efforts of the Nigeria Labour Movement to stamp out precarious work in the country’s workspace Huawei Technologies is digging deeper into it. Different categories of workers exist in the company, there are some issued with initial 1-month, 3-month and 6-month contracts who have worked for the company for several number of years without confirmation of their employments. Another set of workers are handed over to more than one outsourced company which has even made it difficult to point at the real employer.

  1. BREACH OF FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION AND RIGHT TO ORGANISE

To ensure the workers in its employ do not have voice the company has been intimidating, harassing, threatening to sack and sacking employees that have made moves to organize themselves into a Union. As we address you today there are some of them have just been given warning letters to deter them from exercising their fundamental rights as enshrined in relevant laws as mentioned above.

  1. GOING AGAINST ILO CONVENTION ON LEAVE DAYS AND LEAVE ALLOWANCE

Contrary to Holiday with Pay ILO Convention 132 which stipulates that leave days shall in no case be less than three working weeks for one year of service and with pay plus its(leave) allowance the company has not been granting its workers the expected number of leave days and leave allowance.

  1. 24 WORK HOURS

The field engineers in the company are subjected to work without rest. This has had devastating impacts on their health. Why the company expects the workers to give its best 24hours everyday beats our imagination.

  1. RESTRICTIVE CAREER PATH

Huawei Technologies does not have structures in place to ensure steady growth of employees in the organisation. Employees that are diligent have spent several numbers of years in the company without promotion.

  1. DISREGARD FOR OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY OF EMPLOYEES

Field engineers in the organisation work throughout the day and even at wee hours of the night without police escort to provide security for them especially at volatile regions in the country. As a result of this series of attacks and kidnappings have been recorded on the workers.

  1. NO EXIT PACKAGE STRUCTURES EVEN FOR LONG TERM STAFF

As against the practice in the telecoms sector where exit packages are given to employees the company has persistently shied away from paying its workers at the point of their exit.

As a result of the foregoing, we hereby demand:

  1. That the company respect the right of the workers irrespective of the category they fall under to freely join the Union.
  2. Immediate withdrawal of warning letters and threats issued to the leaders of the workers trying to organize them into the Union.
  3. Immediate commencement of discussion and negotiation of Procedural Agreement and Collective Bargaining Agreement with the Union for the workers.
  4. Immediate regularization of employment of all the casual workers in the company.
  5. A stop to continued abuse of expatriates quota policy in the company.
  6. Immediate provision of PPE for the field engineers and ensuring occupational health and safety measures are put in place for the generality of workers in the company.
  7. That Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited immediately remedies all the employee relations issues we raised above.

Huawei continues to undermine and sabotage Nigeria’s economy through its industrial relations practices which is designed to fully emasculate workers, make a nonsense of the local content policy of the federal government and ultimately exploit the nation without appropriate investment especially in human capacity and internalization of technologies for the benefit of our nation’s economy.

As a responsible Trade Union in the telecommunications and communication sector in Nigeria we shall ensure protection of the interests of all workers within the sector, hence, we are dedicated to ensuring that Huawei Technologies treats its workers fairly and within global best practices. All steps, no matter how painstaking they may be, shall be taken to compel the company to comply to all our demands.

Therefore, we implore business partners, individuals, and corporate organisations especially all the telecoms operators that rely on Huawei Technologies Limited to either impress it on the company to change its way towards the Union and its members in the organisation by yielding to our demands or source for another alternative to satisfy their business interests as our proposed action will be wide and compelling with deep implications for their business.

For the umpteenth time, we reiterate that if our demands are not fully and appropriately complied with by Huawei Technologies Nigeria Limited on or before Friday 12th March, 2021 we shall withdraw every guarantee of industrial peace within the company. Sadly, services may be disrupted across the nation throughout all networks that Huawei is associated with from Midnight of Friday 12th March, 2021.

Thank you all.

Signed

Com. Opeyemi Tomori                                                          Com. Okonu Abdullahi A.

President                                                                                 General Secretary