Issa Aremu
Organized labour and women in the informal sector have been assured of improved wage income, empowerment and job security under the leadership of President-elect Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima.
The Director General Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, Ilorin, Issa Aremu gave the assurance on Wednesday while declaring open activities to mark the 2023 International Women’s Day, IWD, organized by the women’s commission of the Institute.
IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.
Aremu who is also the Director of the 75-person Labour Directorate of Asiwaju/ Shetima presidential campaign Council, PCC, said the record of labour administration of the President-elect as former two-term governor of Lagos from 1999 to 2007 and campaign programme of APC positioned him “as the possible best labour-friendly President” in waiting. According to him, Bola Ahmed Tinubu was the first Presidential Candidate to engage both NLC and TUC members on critical labour market issues with promises of social dialogue as means for resolving inevitable disputes in the world of work.”
He described the President-elect and his Vice President as “ tested and trusted democratic state and non-state icons” who would consolidate on some of the pro-labour legacies of President Muhammadu Buhari and engage organized labour on all outstanding issues of the living wage, gender equity, pension, labour motivation, productivity, social protection and dispute resolutions.
Aremu recalled that the President-elect “had been a frequent visiting friend of labour who often intervened between organized labour and government on contentious policy issues at the time it was not fashionable to do so.
“Lagos State under Bola Ahmed and subsequent governors “have been known to be at the vanguard of improving workers’ welfare, and not only implemented all the minimum wages passed in the last 20 years but have not been known to have defaulted in salary payment to its workers, despite the withheld Local Government Fund. The state still prioritizes payment of salary for its workers including local government employees and Lagos has successfully implemented the contributory pension scheme to ensure healthy retirement and guarantee regular payment of pension to workers in future.”
Aremu said “while many states are yet to sign on to compulsory Contributory Pension Scheme ( CPS), Lagos since 2007 has paid as much as N 150 billion to almost 30, 000 retirees. The President-elect remains the best labour-friendly that would guarantee decent work.”
