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Business News of Monday, 21 June 2021

Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

Nigerian workers at receiving end of coronavirus economic shock – Adegbe, HAPSSSA president

The photo used to illustrate the story The photo used to illustrate the story

Since Nigeria shut down the economy in March 2020, till now, the hospitality industry is yet to recover from the colossal damage and this has led to mass sack of workers in the sector.

President of the Hotel and Personal Services Senior Staff Association (HAPSSSA), Iyeh Adegbe, in an interview with the Daily Sun Workforce lamented how an average Nigerian worker has been at the receiving end of the COVID-19 pandemic and other national challenges, including the insecurity.

On the issue of insecurity, Adegbe said the Federal Goverment must sit up and engage all stakeholders so that the problem could be reduced to the barest minimum.

He also speaks on problems confronting organised labour in the area of organising and other sundry labour and national issues.

Excerpt:

Year 2020 and challenges in the sector

For us in the hospitality industry, it has been a serious challenge than ever before. The experience we had in 2020 till now has been something we could never imagine. Between March 2020 and now, we have lost tremendous number of our workforce. The workers have been affected seriously. It came to a point where our employers were no longer seeing business. It became difficult for our employers to engage most of our members. As a result, there was downsizing in most of the hotels where we had our members working. It was a big challenge for us as we managed the employees and the employers on how we could scale through the pandemic.

The Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association’s position on downsizing due to COVID-19

At a point last year, we tried to engage NECA, which put up a proposal, but nothing came out of it. It was empty talk, and majority of our employers didn’t go with the proposal. We tried to involve the hotel employers’ association to try and get the position of NECA but they didn’t heed whatever we brought to them. Even after we called them for a meeting, there was no resolution. They had to take their own decision as it suited them. The majority of them went ahead sacking and downsizing. The position was that NECA was not respected at all.

But that is where the essence of unionism came to play. So many of the employers intended to do it singlehandedly but we stood our ground and we engaged them in discussions. There was none that took unilateral decisions without informing us. The good thing is, in the one that we were involved, our members were paid.

Disengaging to employ casuals

In our sector, it is not pronounced. Our issues with them is, if they have cause to employ new workers, they should first of all consider those that were laid off. We are looking up to that since business is gradually picking up. For now, we cannot fully determine that, since, in most of the hotels, business has not fully returned, but the good thing is that business is picking up.

Looking at the economy vis-a-vis inflation, insecurity and unpaid minimum wage. How would you describe an average Nigerian worker?

It is so unfortunate that the Nigerian worker is at the receiving end of it all. Even the minimum wage that we have, the states have no political will to pay what they agreed. Majority of the governors have deliberately refused to pay and it is a challenge. But the greater challenge we are seeing now is the issue of insecurity, it is getting worse daily. It is like the whole country is engulfed by insecurity. It is as if the government is no longer in control. It is very bad.

There is no economy that can thrive in such a situation. Nobody would come and invest where there is insecurity or where inflation is on the high side. My take is, government must sit up, engaging all stakeholders so that the issue of insecurity is reduced to the barest minimum while inflation is reduced as much as possible.

Challenges of organising and unionising workers in the hotel and services sector

Since the advent of COVID-19, you cannot go to workers and start talking about unionising, since there is no business. As businesses pick up, we will start all over again and go to hotels that are viable enough to start talking about organising them and unionising the members. However, we are facing challenges as most of the employers are interested in cheap labour. So, it has not been easy for us.

In Nigeria, you cannot force workers to join a union when they do not have the willpower even as they know the essence of being in a union. Their managements, most times, sack them when they find out the workers indicated interest to belong to a union. If we have a situation where it is made compulsory for organisations to be unionised, the problems will not be there. They are hiding under the guise that unionism is a matter of interest. Most employers are hiding under that guise to mismanage people, it is a great challenge for us.

During the pandemic, most of the organisations that were not unionised, their workers were sacked without recourse and up till today they were not called back. There was nothing we could do since they were not unionised.

When some of the organisations that were organised wanted to do same, we fought them and stood our ground, at the end of the day we were called to a negotiating table and our members were paid what they deserved. It was a sorry state for organisations that were not organised during the period.

The good thing however is that in the ongoing review of the labour, there is an opportunity for amendment and we have made our suggestion as this case is concerned.

Palliatives from the government during the pandemic.

At our union’s level, we called on the government on behalf of our employers to come to their aid to help them with loans and tax holiday. To the best of my knowledge, government did not heed to our call. But we will not relent, we will continue to call on them and advise the government on what to do.

However, my message to our members is a message of hope, courage, self-control and discipline even as we remain vigilant and conscious of all protocols of COVID-19. They must be observed at every period in time, considering that most of our customers are from different parts of the world. As leaders, we move around to ensure our members comply. However, we have not recorded any of our member with the symptoms. I believe businesses will bounce back and there would be more employment and life will come back to Nigerian workers.