Reform labour market, Textile workers tells FG

From: Femi Oyelola, Kaduna

The National Union of Textile Garment Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN) has called on the Federal Government to urgently reform the labour market and enforce the existing progressive labour laws that will protect workers from being exploited and abused.
The General Secretary of the Union, Comrade Issa Aremu made the assertion in his speech at the Global Day of Mass action for Decent Work, held in Kaduna yesterday.
According to him Trade unions must rise up to defend the dignity of labour and fight precarious work and promote, protect and defend quality, secured employment.
Aremu added that the Union must work to convert precarious work to regular employment with improve working condition.
“Precarious work or casual work is work done under inhuman conditions, low pay, unsecured, work that violate fundamental rights at work, reduce the dignity of workers.
“The most vulnerable are the women and young workers. Some bad employers engage in casualization, paying peanut and engage workers for 12 hours on daily basis.
“In many homes, child labour is the order of the day, where children are kept out of school to engage in menial jobs,” he said.
Comrade Aremu lamented the condition of staff of closed Kaduna Textile Limited in the country, “the workers have suffered untold hardship due to long layoff without pay”.