…Seeks End To Workers’ Casualisation
SAN FRANCISCO, July 10, (THEWILL) – The House of Representatives Thursday urged the Federal Ministry of Education to urgently resolve all pending issues with the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, in order to reopen the schools for academic activities.
The resolution followed the adoption of a motion on matters of urgent national importance moved by Hon. Ibrahim Shehu-Gusau (PDP, Zamfara).
While leading debate on the motion, Gusau said part of the issues raised by the striking polytechnic lecturers were the B.Sc – HND dichotomy and funding of polytechnic education.
He said these issues were very critical and should be addressed urgently by the Federal Government.
Gusau recalled that the institution had been on strike since August 2013 and expressed dissatisfaction that the white paper on presidential visitation to polytechnics in 2012 had not been released.
He disclosed that the strike had affected the studies of over two million Nigerian students, who would have graduated.
The lawmaker noted that the ASUP strike had gone beyond what the House Committee on Education could handle, adding that it was time the House intervened on the matter.
While shedding light on the issue, Chairman, House Committee on Education, Hon. Aminu Suleiman, (APC Kano), expressed dismay at what was happening in the polytechnic education.
He said the committee had had meeting with ASUP and the National Association of Colleges of Education Academic Staff Union, COEASU, and the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike, and all the thorny issues were resolved in principle.
The House also passed for second reading a bill that seeks to outlaw casualisation of workers in the country.
The bill, sponsored by Hon. Emmanuel Jime (APC, Benue), if passed into law will peg the timeframe allowed for an employee to work as a casual staff in any organisation at a minimum of two years.
In his lead debate on the general principles of the bill, Jime explained that the lawmakers owe an obligatory responsibility of protecting Nigerians from being enslaved by their employers who often take advantage of loopholes in the current labour laws to exploit their staff with impunity.
He posited that “the extant law as we have it now only speaks of a written statement to enable a worker to be regularized as a permanent staff. It provides no punitive measures for refusal to regularise workers in violation of the law. The new law seeks to peg the period of casualisation of staff to a maximum period of two years.”
While opposing the motion, Hon Adah Francis Busam, (PDP, Cross Rivers), argued that the bill would be an aberration given the circumstances surrounding different types of employments which he said have both constitutional and legal backing as well as discretional requirements respectively.
The bill was however supported by majority of the lawmakers and subsequently passed for second reading and referred to the committee on labour for further legislative action.
SAINT MUGAGA, ABUJA.
