Rivers TUC Frowns At Implementation Of ‘No Work, No Pay’ Policy

 

The Trade Union Congress in Rivers State has criticized the decision of the Federal Government to implement the ‘No Work, No Pay’ rule and the FG’s move to stipulate tenures for union executives.

The TUC chairman, Rivers State, Austin Jonah said the decision will not stand, stating that: “If they want to implement ‘No Work, No Pay’, when they have not paid us at the end of the month, they should also know that ‘No Salary, No Work’. If they will accept that, then they can go ahead to implement whatever they want to implement”.

On the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, stating that trade unions
should present constitutions that must have tenures; at least, maximum of two tenures for any elective position, Austin Jonah said:
“Is it the Ministry of Labour that will write the constitution and tell us our tenure? They operate as executives in their government. They will come and decide tenure for labour union. It is not our civil right to associate and also do whatever we want to do on our side as a union”.

 

In a similar vein, reacting to the fixed tenure for 7 years residence training of medical doctors, the former National President of the National Association of Resident Doctors in Nigeria (NARD), Dan Jumbo said the new policy of 7 years residency training may create conflict for doctors.

“Even when the laws are passed, implementation is a problem. We’ve had issues where people need to go outside the confines of their tertiary institutions to other centers that have accreditation for this programme and I think what government should be doing is to follow clearly the law as been stipulated, implement it to the latter than coming up with a policy that will create conflict. Because we live in a country where you solve a problem to create more problems, I think government should revisit this pronouncement and follow what the law says”.

These new developments were made known by the Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr Chris Ngige, on Wednesday in the Presidential Villa, Abuja after the FEC meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari.