One of the focal points at the 32nd annual Industrial Relations Seminar of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees, NUCFRLANMPE, held in Ilorin, Kwara State, was the issue of job security of members.

According to the union, the economic downturn ravaging the country has made the jobs of members very unsafe and implored the government to urgently address the challenges of the sector.

Welcoming participants and other guests, President of the Union, Comrade Goke Olatunji, noted that manufacturing was critical to driving Nigeria’s economic growth and ensuring a sustainable future for its people.

While lamenting that the present socio-economic situation, was not favourable to everyone including businesses, he said: “Manufacturers are lamenting daily due to high cost of production as a result of high interest rate and high electricity bill, while petroleum products that are supposed to be for alternative power generation, are equally very expensive.

“The roads are bad while different forms of taxes are daily imposed on manufacturers.

“It is a fact that manufacturing remains the surest way for economic growth and development.

“We cannot continue to export our natural resources without adding value and expect our economy to grow and develop.

“The volume of exports and imports determines economic growth. Where import is greater than export as we experience in Nigeria, it weakens the local currency, causes inflation, man-power turnover, hunger and poverty which may likely trigger social unrest such as the recent #endbadgovernance protest.”

Olatunji expressed sadness that the economic downturn also affected the sector especially workers, saying: “Workers on daily basis suffer from job losses due to redundancy, closure and relocation of factories. Majority of them work under precarious conditions with poor salary and no incentives or motivation. The present inflation rate and exchange rate are having negative effects on real value of naira. It may interest you to know that the dollar equivalent of the recently signed minimum wage of N70,000 is far below when it was N18,000.

“Let me appreciate our employers for agreeing to sign N87, 000 in 2023 as minimum wage in our sector. I wish the narrative is changed from minimum wage to living wage. It is, therefore, our resolve to educate our teeming membership on the workings of the national economy thereby preparing them for issue-based discussions in their day-to- day employers–employees’ relations.”

Speaking on the theme: Building Human Resources Capacity for Effective Industrial Relations in an era of Economic Crisis, Olatunji said it was drawn largely from present economic situation in the country.

“The understanding of the state of our national economy will impact positively on industrial relations in our sector. This will enrich discussions between the employers and employees, thereby promoting industrial peace and harmony,” he said.

The keynote speaker, Executive Secretary of Chemical and Non-Metallic Products Employers’ Federation, CAMPEF, Mr Femi Oke, said human resources is the life blood of an organisation.

He said despite the application of technology in modern business management, human resources are still relevant and most adaptive resources of the organisation.

“The strategic values of HR stem from the fact that apart from other resources employed in the course of production which is passive, human resources are endowed with discretionary decision-making power and thus have competitive advantage over the other resources,” Oke said. (Vanguard)

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