The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has kicked against planned removal of Labour matters from the exclusive legislative list.
The NLC said Federal Government’s decision to carry out the plan would create intractable chaos for the country as well as judicial nightmares, adding that the government would also flout International Labour Organizations conventions.
President of NLC, Ayuba Wabba, in a statement said the nation-states legislation on Labour is driven substantially from the International Labour Organisation conventions, protocols and recommendations and other instruments domesticated through the Acts of parliament.
The labour leader maintained that such development explained the near uniformity of labour laws across the nations of the world and relative global industrial order, harmony and an attraction for foreign investment.
He stated, “In the light of this, deregulating labour to the states will inevitably create intractable problems. At the membership level, the 36 states of the federation and the FCT are not sovereign which is a basis for ILO membership of Nigeria.
“Secondly, a corpus of labour legislation across the 36 States and FCT will almost certainly create a judicial nightmare.
“Thirdly, investors will be scared away as they will consider this as an unnecessary addition to the already hostile operating environment. At the level of workers who often act in the national interest, this will whittle down patriotic influence.
”In the light of this, we will strongly advocate against removing labour from the Exclusive Legislative List. Not even during the military era was this contemplated.”
