The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) on Wednesday suspended the planned picketing of five banks that recently carried out mass retrenchment of workers.
The decision was taken at a consultative meeting between the leadership of the Congress led by its president, Ayuba Wabba and the leadership of the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Assembly (NECA), led by the Director- General, Segun Oshinowo.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, Wabba said the planned picketing has been suspended until after the stakeholders’ meeting being put together by the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
According to him, the meeting will take place in July.
He said: “We had a very fruitful meeting with employers of labour led by the DG of NECA and representatives of the various banks on the mass sack and staff redundancy in the banks for which NLC issued a notice to picket some banks.
“This is a follow up to the public hearing which we attended at the Senate. The Senate Committee encouraged such meeting and consultations in the best interest of workers and the employers.
“We have x-rayed all the challenges especially the process and procedure as well as the issue of law on how to declare redundancy and the process to be followed to address redundancy. And we have come to the conclusions that a meeting is necessary and taking into consideration the interest of the workers as provided by the law especially section 20 of the trade union act which provide for such dialogue and consultations.
“We have looked at the pros and cons and the fact that our affiliate, NUBIFIE has been able to update us on how far they have gone in their engagement with the various banks.
“We have come to an agreement to attend the tripartite meeting being convened by the Federal Ministry of Labour to look into other issues. We have also agreed as NLC, working with our affiliates to suspend all hostilities including the planned picketing of the banks until that meeting takes place.”
