NIGERIA LABOUR CONGRESS
MOTTO: LABOUR CREATES WEALTH
NATIONAL HEADQUARTERS: LAGOS OFFICE:
Paschal Bafyau Labour House 29, Olajuwen Street,
Plot €20/821 Central Bushess District Off Ojuelegda Road
Federal Capital Teritory, P.0.Box 620, Yeba
P.0.Box 10871 PMB 565 Garki, Abuja. Lagos - Nigeria
‘Tek: 03022772299, 08073015037
E-mal: gsec@nleng.org, Website: wwwnicng.o1g
NLG/NS/E.16/654 '
5% OctoBer 2022
The Honourable Minister
Federal Ministry of Labour and Emptoyment
Federal Secretariat — Abuja
Deac troy. Minis
ORGANIZED LABOUR REJECTS THE PURPORTED REGISTRATION OF
NEW TRADE UNIONS FOR ACADEMICS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES
We bring you fraternal greetings from the Nigeria Labour Congress.
We write to bring your attention to widely circulated media reports on
the granting of Certificates of Registration to two new trade unions —
Congress of Nigerian University Academics (CONUA) and Nigeria
Association of Medical and Dentat Lecturers in Academics (NAMDA) by
the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.
We wish to posit that the granting of Certificates of Registration to the
afore-mentioned groups is in violation of our laws which have been tested
and affirmed from the National! Industrial Court of Nigeria to the Appeal
Court and up to the Supreme Court. The foundation of these laws was set
in international labour standards particularly the International Labour
Organization (ILO) fundamental Conventions 87 and 98 which were
some of the first ILO standards ratified by Nigeria upon the attainment of
Independence.
Having ratified ILO Conventions 87 and 98, Nigeria has domesticated
same in our Constitution especially Section 40 which guarantees freedom
of association. The Constitution went on to regulate freedom of
association in Sections 41(2). This is pursuant to public decorum and order
since where one right ends another begins.
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AYUBA P. WABBA,mni DTA Nu)Nigeria's labour laws in furtherance of the constitutional regulation on
jf freedom of association provided certain conditions for the registration of
/ trade unions upon which compliance Certificates of Registration can be
given to trade unions by the Ministry of Labour.
Section 3 of the Trade Union Act stipulates the following conditions for
the registration of trade unions:
{1) An application for the registration of a trade union shall be
made to the Registrar in the prescribed form and shall be signed-
(a) in the case of a trade union of workers, by at least fifty
members of the union;and 7.
(b) in the case of a trade union of employers, by at least two
members of the union.
(2) No combination of workers or employers shall be registered as
a trade union save with the approval of the Minister on his being
satisfied that it is expedient to register the union either by
regrouping existing trade unions, registering a new trade union or
otherwise howsoever, but ne trade union shall be registered to
lepresent workers or employers in a place where there already
exists a trade union.
Section 5 of Trade Union Act went on to stipulate the following
additional conditions for the registration of a new trade union:
“{l) Where an application for the registration of a trade union is received
by the Registrar, the following provisions of this section shall app of a
trade union is received by the Regis Provided that if the application
appears to the Registrar to be defective in any respect, he shall notify
the applicant accordingly and shall take no further action in relation
thereto until the application has been amended to his satisfaction or a
fresh application is made in place thereof.
(2) The Registrar shall cause a notice of the application to be published
in the Federal Gazette, stating that objections to the registration of the
trade union in questio:
in may be submitted to him in writing during the
period of three months beginning with the date of the Gazette in which
the notice is published,
a
a
21Page{3] Within three months after the end of the said period of three months
the Registrar shall consider any objections submitted to him during that
period and, if satisfied- (a) that no proper objection has been raised: (b|
that none of the purposes of the trade union is unlawful; and (c) that the
requirements of this Act and of the Requlations with respect to the
registration of trade unions have been complied with, shall, subject to
subsection (2) of this section, and to section 6 of this Act. register the
trade union and its rules.
(4) The Registrar shall not register the trade union if it appears to him
that any existing trade union is sufficiently representative of the
interests of the class of persons whose interest the unions. intended to
represent.”
Clearly, from the provisions of Section 3(2) and Sections 5(2), 5(3) and
5(4), there is no basis for the purported registration of the Congress of
Nigerian University Academics {CONUA) and the Nigeria Association of
Medical and Dental Lecturers in Academics ([NAMDA) as both entities
failed woefully to satisfy the precedent conditions provided by the Trade
Union Act for the registration of trade unions.
As earlier posited, the legitimacy of granting registration certificates to
groups in a sector where unions already exist has been tested in our
courts from the National Industrial Court to the Supreme Court. In the case
of Erasmus Osawe Vs Registrar of Trade Unions and also the case of
Nigeria Nurses Association Vs Attorney General of the Federation
Unreported Suit No. S.C. 69/1980 delivered on 6" November 1981, it is
trite that anywhere there exist a union registered to cater for a category
of workforce it would be unpardonable proliferation and offence against
the Constitution and Trade Unions Act for any other union to be
registered for the same category of workers.
And this position was more recently restated by the Supreme Court in a
judgement delivered on 11% January 2008 and cited as (2008) 1 S.C.
(PT.Il) Supreme Court Justices led by Hon. Justice Sylvester Onu and four
others.
Honourable Minister, in view of the foregoing, we demand that you
respect the doctrine of the Rule of law especially the clear provisions of
our labour laws cited and withdraw the Certificate of Registration issued
to the two new trade unions.
a
3 [PageWhile we look forward to your kind consideration of our demands, please
accept the assurances of our warm regards.
Comrade Ayuba Wabba, mni
President
Cc: Director General, SSS
President, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria
All Affiliate Unions of NLC ~~
Femi Falana, SAN
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