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Security Of Jobs Is Our Priority�Ogbuji

Comrade Gideon Ogbuji is a veteran in labour unionism, he was recently confirmed the General Secretary of the National Union of Air Transport Employees (NUATE) after more than two decade of service in that capacity. In this interview with TUNDE LAWAL, he highlights the agenda of the newly sworn-in Executives of the union and also speaks on other issues relating to workers.

Could you please state briefly the agenda of the new executives of the union?
We have just concluded our eight quadrennial delegate conference in Kaduna and new officers emerged. The handing over has been concluded and we are swinging into action. The first thing on our agenda is job security. We are concentrating on security of jobs because if there are no jobs, no other agenda will work. The main aim of this present administration is to ensure job security. This is resulting from the uprising of concessioning and privatisation of viable airport. We are afraid that if concessioning and privatization are allowed to take place the way the Federal Government wants it without taking labour into consideration, definitely there will be no job security. As you can see in some airlines, we have not been able to unionise them although we are getting in touch with the managers to tell them about the importance of unionisation. Up till now, we have not been able to achieve that almost one year after MMA2 was established.
Part of our agenda is to take up all the revenue points of FAAN headquarters here and in line with the agreement that no commercial viable buildings will be built by FAAN within 200 metres from MMA2. If that is allowed to happen, some people will just have no job to do. We are working to ensure that government do this concessioning with human face in such a way that due process are followed.
Possibly transfer workers to the airports they feel are not viable and work out modalities of making them viable. As government is trying to establish dry land airports where cargos can be distributed to various places, we are of the opinion that some of these airports can also be commercially viable.
Look at the commercial status of major cities in Nigeia, look at the North, the South, the East. For instance Aba is very close to the Owerri airports and the airport is being under utilized so a cargo airport has been proposed, Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport, so if you now move experienced workers from these viable airports that are being privatized to the place, it could turn to a very minegold airport.
People in that side find it difficult to get their goods out of PortHarcourt. We have made many recommendations to the government but we don't know how serious they are taking it.
Having succeeded in that, welfare of workers is equally paramount to us. Already, we have written letters to the four government arms in the aviation industry, we have given them up to 26th of October to implement the 15 per cent salary increase as announced by the Federal Government or we talk to them in the union way. If welfare of workers is improved, productivity will improve, no doubt about it because to who much is given much is expected.
We also want to improve on the activities of the union making it to be a strong and virile union. A house that is divided against itself cannot stand. We want to maintain peace because when there is peace in the union, we will have our activities under a peaceful atmosphere and we will be successful doing it.
How can a blissful retirement be secured for workers in the light of the growing reduction in pensionable jobs?
Actually it is a sad development, what most employers do these days is to employ so many workers under casualisation condition. Casual employment is just as agreed. If the agreement is to pay N20,000 that is all and no other allowance is attached to it. A casual worker does not even know what is called pension. Nothwithstanding , the union has taken note of that, in the aviation industry, the gratuity is still running, the gratuity that was enacted along with the labour laws is still in place.
The pension is now converted to contributory pension, what we call one-on-one, employers contribute seven and half per cent and same by employees, that is the minimum. The recent interactive meeting we had with NLC and Pension administrative officers revealed that the worst that has been maintained since about two years of the creation of the new pension contribution is that seven and half per cent which every body has maintained. But in the Aviation Industry, we have been able to break that jinx because we have got about 12 percent contribution from the employers.
It takes time because everybody is studying it, many people don't want to contribute their money to an unknown administrator. It may go the same way banks went. Even those who were known to be members of board of directors fraud people and nothing happened. People died through thinking and shock.
Somebody paid in his gratuity money of about 13million Naira to Savanah bank, less than a month later, the bank folded up, the man died because of the shock and nothing happened. Nigerians have the heart to commit crime and face the consequences and that is one of the factors threatening the survival of the pension contribution. It is something good if the employers contribute as at when due as well as the employees and the payment is made to various pension administrators to be properly managed in line with the Pension Reform Act 2004. if you are retiring, you wont have any fear, you are sure of your 50 per cent of the total contribution, the rest will be splitted and you will be drawing it as if you are drawing your salary.
Nothing gives joy and hope than that, when you know that tomorrow I will get N2,000 you can plan on that. So many government establishment have not been able to implement it but having seen that some other people are now rejoicing over what is going to be their future, workers have started agitating for it. I can asure you in the aviation industry it is being implemented, the present contributed up seven and half per cent is done by both management and workers and we are improving from the minimum to ten, to twelve per cents and with time, it will go around.
Those who are indulging in casulisation have been made to know that we are against it, we have protected strongly and we believe they are going to look at it. In the advanced countries, there are casual workers but they are allowed to join unions, here it is not like that. This casualisation of workers is having a great consequence on drug peddling, the act is aided by these casual workers.
It is bad signal on the aviation industry. Nobody who has served up to 20 years in the industry will play that kind of role having known what gratuity and pension await him. That is what we are talking about, when you give a worker that kind of hope, he will perform his duty with all sincerity.
In the face of non compliance of employers on pension contributions, what do you advisew the workers?
The law is very clear about these issues, the right to unionise, right to belong to a union organization. Even at international levels, it was recognized that workers rights should be protected. Could you believe that Chanchangi who has operated in this industry for almost 20 years does not have union, does not allow altough I had a meeting with their human resource manager who believes that no management can perform effectively without union having studied what happened in Briscoe, Aero contractor, FAAN and others.
No workers wants to be reported to the union because he will be marked of indecent character and when there is any trouble, the union will not fight for such worker. Those that been unionised are doing well but those who have not been unionized are terrible.
I have never seen Chanchangi conditions of service. I don't even know whether they know what is called gratuity and pension if they know it, how are they running it? Is it in line with the law?
Is it in line with what the federal Govt. is saying? Is it in line with what is obtainable? Can it be compared with other employers in the industry? The union has requested for what employer cannot pay in our negotitaion. We are now taking a step to ensure that all the airline companies are unionized.
Any airline operator that is not prepared for its workers to be unionised had better packed out of the airports. If anything happens, we know the airline to be called, we don't know how NCAA grant them licence. Some of them will present fictitious record before NCCA and investigations will not be carried to find the veracity of the record before granting them licence.
Is it in line with ICAO guidelines to operate your aircraft with casual employees? What is the state of mind of such a worker that he can do the job thoroughly? When his colleague that will be coming to supervise him is not better than him and yet will receive higher salary. What killed Okada was bad administration, the workers were tired, they started stealing their properties and equipments, police will search and will not find anything and that was how they stole everything. That was the same thing that happened to all airline that went down. We are advising them that there is no other way out, we are always here, we have never supported any indiscipline, if any worker is found guilty of negligent of his duty, the matter is brought to us and we have attended to so many if such cases. After listening to the worker and the employer, we will ensure that we find out the truth. Some of them even confess what they have done and having reported, we will advise that he is placed on observation for six months and some of them have changed.
In the face of the common strike action in this part of the world, what is the best alternative to strike?
If there is any aversion of strike action, it is because the management has chosen to listen. If you listen very well as a manager, you will achieve a lot. You will stop negative reaction and protests from workers. During the Obasanjo administration, even when eh was advised not to increase fuel price, he insisted and did it, the workers reacted and there was a strike. Now you know how many times this present administration has averted strike by listening to workers. When he says he will increase fuel price and labour says no, he will oblige. Strike is not the ultimate tool that labour uses but it is usually as a result of disagreement in discussions.
If a peaceful atmosphere does not work, then crisis is created. Management at times don't even react until they see workers carrying placards, posters protesting, they will then be ready to dialogue and do what they should have done earlier.
I don't see such managers as good managers. I don't see myself talking to my MD on issues I am sure may degenerate into industrial crisis and he refuses to listen, I will resign, but because you don't even know where you are going if you resign, you will say O.K Sir. These are the things we see. I believe that dialogue is the best option to industrial strike. Strike affects both the management and the workers. We encourage the management to avoid strike because they lose move than this workers.
There is an argument that labour is growing passive of late, what is your comment on this?
Yes, labour can be passive somehow but not totally, it depends on the issue. If you jump into any matter without thorough investigation and strategy, you are likely to lose. I am talking from experience in the aviation industry. By now, FAAN ought to have retrenched 65 percent of its work force, NAMA 10 percent of its work force but because of constant dialogue finding alternatives to solve the problem especially on overhead cost. We have been able to settle that.
We make thorough investigation before carrying out action and if you look at Nigerian economy, the environment is not conducive for business, electricity is not there, transport is bad and all that, when you look at all these things, what are you going to fight for. The little things you have, you make sure it doesn't go down the drain or you help destroy it, that is why we have dropped all that spontaneous actions on so many issues. Again, since the power to punish any public officer how is found wanting is not in our hands, what do we do? They are all stealing billions, they continue to charge and bail them and nobody is fighting, so what do we do. How many people have been killed in the course of struggle, what has the masses done for them? The likes of Ken Saro Wiwa, what the Niger Deltas are now fighting is different from what Saro Wiwa was fighting.
If we have people who derive the pleasure in oppressing the masses, what do we do?