The Senate at its plenary session of Tuesday, 17 October 2017, adopted a motion calling on the Federal Government to sanction private agencies, companies and institutions in Nigeria that prohibit workers union membership or/and participation.

Presenting the motion titled “The need to sanction private companies and institutions that disallow workers’ unionism in their companies”, Sen. Shehu Sani (APC: Kaduna) expressed dismay over the deteriorating conditions under which workers function particularly with recent economic challenges. Sen. Sani noted that these conditions were increasingly compounded by unacceptable practices and policies of some private companies and institutions that ban unionism in contravention of section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) provides that:

Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons, and in particular he may from or belong to any political party, trade union or any association for the purpose of his interest”.

Sen. Sani explained that global best practices as well as several international labour laws and conventions Nigeria acceded to, recognize the unconditional right of workers to form unions and associate freely. He also gave a recent case of an incident where the Nigeria Labour Congress organized a mass picket of the corporate headquarters of the MTN Nigeria in protest of company’s decision to ban workers unions. He described the decision of the telecoms giant as an “ignominious act”.

The Senate has also instructed its Committee on Employment, Labour and Productivity to urgently draw up measures that can enforce compliance with labour union laws and provide sanctions for institutions that ban workers from forming membership or participating in such unions.