Review workers salary or face industrial crisis, Union threatens

By ANDREW OJIEZEL

THE organized labour in construction industry under the umbrella of National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), has charged the Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI) to review the salary of workers to avoid industrial crisis.

President General of the union, Comrade Amaechi Asugwuni, who gave the warning at a press briefing in Lagos to highlight the plight of construction workers, stressed that FOCI, which is the employers association in the industry, had delayed the review of the salary in spite of several negotiations.

”The employers must be in line with industrial procedures. Salaries should be reviewed based on dialogue. The only way to compensate workers for excess job is to increase their salaries. We will not accept a situation where workers are overworked and paid less,” the union leader said.

He stated that since 2008, the union has been negotiating a review of workers’ salary in line with the National Joint Industrial Council agreement. He said since employers in the industry have been sacking workers because of economic down turn, it was necessary to increase the salaries of the few workers left.

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Asugwuni said, ”anybody who wants to drive a business must regard labour. The employers said that government has not paid them for jobs executed and sacked thousands of workers. The employers have continued to sack workers as a result of dwindling fortune. Now, one person does the job of three persons that is why we urge the employers to review their salary.”

Though he noted that the union has not been able to protest over the sack of workers because it wanted the few that were retained to be well remunerated, however, said the union would not tolerate workers being treated with disregard. He stated that the union would start an interactive campaign for the workers to know the state of issue and steps to take when necessary.