The organized labour is set for a showdown with the Kaduna State government over the introduction of a fresh verification exercise that compels civil servants to fill forms indicating if they still want to be members of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress, or not.
Leaders of the affiliate bodies of the two unions gathered at the state NLC secretariat for an emergency meeting to brief their national leaders over the new directive given by the state government.
The workers are not happy and want government to expunge the portion of the verification form that states that civil servants should decide whether or not they want to belong to labour union in the new state government’s rules of engagement.
The TUC Chairman in Kaduna State, Shehu Mohammed, explained that the state government had issued a form titled ‘Special Exercise on Staff Verification’, where it requested all workers under its payroll to fill a “Yes or No”, for membership of a union.
The NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, and his Trade Union Congress (TUC) counterpart, Bobbai Kaigama, have directed the workers to disregard the order by not filling the form.
They said that the new screening exercise is against International Labour Organisation Convention on rights of workers, and also a deliberate measure to destabilize unionism in the state’s public service.
In separate interviews with Channels Television, the NLC President and his TUC counterpart, insisted that no reasonable government would deny workers of their fundamental rights to belong to a union.
Reacting to the issues raised by the workers, Governor El-Rufai through his Spokesman, Samuel Aruwan, said that the exercise is a continuation of the previous one that commenced in 2015 and not a new one.
He explained that the verification process is necessary to establish a comprehensive data, and therefore, cannot be considered conclusive until the government is reasonably satisfied that it has eliminated ghosts from its payroll.
Regarding union membership, Aruwan stated that government respects the right of workers to freedom of association, but stressed that government considers that it is democratic that those who wish to exercise this right or not should indicate in writing.
In June 2015, the Kaduna State Government introduced the biometric verification of all civil servants in its employment. The exercise was designed to provide the government an accurate and reliable record of its personnel and clean-up its payroll.
A new twist to the exercise was the introduction of the fresh form the civil servants are mandated to fill and submit to the office of the Head of Service.
While Kaduna government insists that the introduction of the form is not to break the ranks of the NLC or TUC in the state, the workers have agreed to meet by Wednesday March 23 to take a definite stand on their next line of action.
Until then, they have vowed not to sign the controversial form.
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