The Managing Director of DELOG, a labour consultancy firm, Mr. Dele Ogundimu, has advised employers to create platform for discussing with their employees, saying such move would help stop incessant industrial action being witnessed in the country today.
A statement from the company quoted Ogundimu as saying this during an interview with journalists recently.
He said it was imperative to give workers opportunity to express the anomaly affecting them in their place of work, advising that it should also be done privately.
He said, “I believe that government and private business owners want to put a stop to industrial action, there is no forum for workers to express their demands and grievances as well as solve them. When there is no forum for that, there is going to be problem and chaos. I will advise that for every organisation, there should always be a forum, at least once in three months so that workers’ problem would be made known.
“For instance, in Chevron where we are working as labour contractors, for every three months, we use to have joint consultative forum in order to have good relations between the workers and the employers. In this forum, issues that would cause problem would have been discussed with union and clients and the authorities would have taken note and address the issues.
He added, “So if it is a government employment, the government should create a forum wherein the workers come together to express their grievances. You do not wait until the issue escalate to something unpleasant before looking for solution or blaming the workers.”
Ogundele observed that investors in the country had been facing problems ranging from decaying infrastructure to inadequate power supply, which he said was responsible for the high rate of joblessness in the country.
Ogundimu decried government’s nonchalance in the support of investors and entrepreneurs in the country.
He said, “We have been employing workers for Chevron, British American Tobacco, 7-UP, amongst others, so I know there is a robust labour market in Nigeria; the market is there, but the problem we are facing at present has to do with the investors who complain of factors preventing them from doing well in their investment, like power and many other infrastructural deficiencies, as well as the lack of government support.
“There is seemingly no help for investors; the only help is through penalties, levies and charges. You will agree with me that when these investors discover that there are no government supports for them, some close down their business,” he said.