Members of the Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (CANMPSSAN) have appealed to the federal government to gear its policies towards stopping casualisation and contract staffing employment in the country, or at least curtailing it.
Speaking during the third quadrennial national delegates’ conference, themed Repositioning manufacturing industry for positive sectorial growth in the present Nigerian economy, the national president of the group, Comrade Segun David, described casual work as often temporary, with uncertain wages, long hours, and no job security.
The labour leader, who said that the matter should be pursued vigorously by the FG, added that it could be actualised through collaboration with organised labour and civil society organisations.
“The rise of casual employment is now a global trend in the larger global picture where decent work as a path to broad-based development is rejected and more jobs are created through outsourcing or labour agencies.
“Casual work is often temporary, with uncertain wages, long hours, and no job security.
“The growth in irregular work has changed the nature of employment from a labour relationship to a commercial relationship, with the worker taking all the risks. The truth is that the owner of the business wants to cut costs by all means possible so that human capital can be treated as mere robots.
“Our position as a trade union organisation is that government policies must be geared towards stopping casualties or at least curtailing them. This should be pursued vigorously and actualised through collaboration with organised labour and civil society organisations.”
The trade union, which also called on the government to check what it described as surging unemployment in the country, said that unemployment had continued to be the number one problem in the nation.
“The challenges of national development are to manage the economy in such a way as to promote job-led growth rather than the present situation of jobless growth.
“In our country today, many graduates and skilled youths are roaming the streets in search of jobs. All the prompt promises of the government to create jobs have not yielded any dividends.
“It is a shame that the government is dealing with the unemployment situation by releasing spurious figures of jobs they have created only on the pages of newspapers.
“In the year 2060, when our country will celebrate 100 years of independence, the population of Nigeria at the current growth rate will be 350 million people.
“Regrettably, there is no policy in place to effectively address the looming challenges that will arise.
“The time to act is now. The present administration must consider various windows of opportunity that will be attractive to business environment and encourage industrialisation for the organised private sector to partner in the provision and expansion of infrastructure at all levels to enable it to rise to the occasion and drive the process of employment generation.”
