A member of National Executive Council (NEC) of  Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Issa Aremu, yesterday called  on President Muhammadu Buhari  to caution governor of Nasarawa State, Tanko Al-Makura over the recent killing of two workers in the State allegedly by  Government House security operatives.

Aremu made the call on Tuesday at a nationwide protest by NLC against the killing as well as the increasing violations of workers’ rights in the country.

Expressing support for the nationwide protests by the NLC against  killing of the two workers, Comrade Aremu stated that the unprovoked action by the police against unarmed workers on a peaceful protest was criminal and unacceptable.

“It is a gross violation of workers’ rights to protest as enshrined in Nigeria Constitution and International Labour Organisation, ILO, provisions. We therefore support the demand by the NLC for the Nasarawa State government to investigate the incident, apprehend the culprits and bring them to Justice,” the labour leader stated.

In the vein, comrade Aremu called on the Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige to prevail on the governors of Benue and  Imo States to respect Nigeria labour law, stop wage cut and arbitrary redeployment of workers to the farms as a way of avoiding full payment of wages.

Comrade Aremu who is also the General Secretary of National Union of Textile Workers (NUTGTWN) stated that “Labour matters are on the exclusive Federal list of 1999 constitution. It is therefore illegal and unconstitutional for these governors as employers of labour to arbitrarily violate the terms of contract of their workers with respect to pay and work schedule.”

It will be recalled that Governor Al-Makura had cut workers’ pay by 50 per cent and also threatened to sack striking workers who rightly protested the wage cut and replace them with “fresh graduates”.

Comrade Aremu stated that “No colonial governor during the hated British colonialism so verbally casualized the dignity of labour with respect to contracts of employment on pay and tenure as Governor, Tanko Al-Makura unacceptably did.”

The labour chieftain expressed  solidarity with the State chapter of Nigeria Labour Congress to condemn the alleged illegality in pay cut.

He said, “Under the emergency Back to Land for Agriculture programme, which was never part of his campaign promises, the Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, also announced the reduction of normal working days from 5 to 3 days a week, as well as slash workers monthly salaries.

“In June, Benue State government had also declared Friday of every week a work free day “..to enable workers in the state to go and work on their farms”. The state government wrongly claimed the illegal move would aid as many workers as possible “..to produce enough food to feed their families in the face of the current economic downturn which has made the regular payment of salaries a major challenge.”

Condemning these acts by the governors, Comrade Aremu stated that the 1999 Constitution under which the governors took the oath of office explicitly guarantees the sanctity of public service at both Federal and state levels with respect to adequate security of tenure, hours of work, health and safety, adequate remunerations and pensions.

“Section 209 Of the Constitution guarantees decent work of the civil servants in the public service of a State and does not subject it to the whims of executive governors”. Aremu said.

The textile scribe called on the Head of Service of the federation as well as heads of service of the 36 states to speak out in defense of the rights of public servants against serial attacks of some states’ Governors.