The NLC President, Mr. Ayuba Wabba, in his address at the 2020 International Workers’ Day celebration in Abuja, expressed worries about the looming mass sack in the country because of COVID-19.
However, the minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige alluded to job protection by the federal government, in a solidarity message sent to workers to mark the day.
Ngige said that the federal government was considering a four – pillar plan of policy responses to COVID-19 crisis laid out by the International Labour Organization (ILO).
The NLC said there was genuine premise to worry about possible threats to job retention both in the public and private sectors of the economy following disruptions caused by several weeks of lockdown on economic activities in the country.
For instance, it said the closure of the airspace had seen gross interruption and the near absence of passenger traffic and the associated services in the aviation sector.
It added that the social lockdown and physical distancing had reduced patronage of places of popular gathering, noting that workers in the hotel, recreation and tourism segments would be severely impacted as their workplaces have been largely shut. NLC said there is cause for worry about the fate of workers in these critical sectors of the economy.
Similarly, the NLC said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that Nigeria’s economy would shrink by 3.4 per cent and that the consequent recession could last until 2021.
“For a middle-income country like Nigeria, the hard-hit sectors which are the informal sector and semi-informal sectors of the economy represent a high proportion of workers with non-fixed contracts of employment and with limited access to health services and social protection,” it said.
NLC further talked about the proposed tax rebate, hailing the House of Representatives for passing the Emergency Economic Stimulus Bill, 2020.
The bill seeks to provide 50 per cent tax rebate for employers and business owners who agree to retain existing staff in 2020, thus seeking to prevent job losses in the formal sector.
However, NLC expressed hope that the exclusion of informal workers from benefitting from the bill should be quickly addressed especially given that over 70% of Nigeria’s workforce and businesses actually operate in the informal sector.