The director general of Michael Imoudu National Institute For Labour Studies (MINILS), Ilorin, Kwara State, Comrade Issa Aremu, has urged the organised labour to forge a sustainable partnership for decent work agenda and national development with the president- elect, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
Aremu made the call in Ilorin while declaring open a two-day induction industrial relations training programme for the executive members of the newly formed Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA).
He said the inauguration of the new administration of the president-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, will offer a new opportunity for unions, governments and employers to “rethink and deepen Nigeria/ ILO Decent Work agenda with respect to a secured and well paid private and public jobs, freedom of association, productivity and workers’ motivation”.
He noted that said Tinubu values labour as a critical success partner in his commendable Renewed Hope agenda through mass youth employment programme and end to avoidable strikes in the universities through social dialogue.
Aremu said the record of labour administration of the president-elect as former two-term governor of Lagos and campaign programme of APC positioned him “as the possible best labour-friendly president” in the waiting.
He noted that Tinubu was the first presidential candidate to engage both NLC and TUC members on critical p market issues with promises of social dialogue as means for resolving inevitable disputes in the world of work.
He described the president-elect and the vice president- elect as “tested and trusted democratic state and non-state icons” who would consolidate on some of the pro-labour legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari and engage the organised labour on all outstanding issues of the living wage, gender equity, pension, labour motivation, productivity, social protection and dispute resolutions.
Earlier,CONUA chairman, Comrade Niyi Sunmonu, had thanked the management of MINILS for organising the training programme for members of the newly registered union in the nation’s university system.
He added that:” our expectation is hinged on our core belief – uninterrupted academic calendar without our welfare suffering, adding that, “strike takes so many things away from students, especially time which is irretrievable.”
Saying that the union will not be confrontational in addressing issues affecting its members’ welfare, Sunmonu said:” When you are confrontation, you create a bigger problem than the issue that led to the strike in the first place. We are not afraid of the government, but we shall not be confrontational.”
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