Effect given to the recommendations of the committee and the Governing Body - Report No 306, March 1997

Effect given to the recommendations of the Committee and the Governing Body

1. 45. During its last substantive examination of this case in June 1996 (304th Report, para. 13), the Committee urged the Government to take the necessary measures to ensure the immediate release of Mr. Kokori, General Secretary of NUPENG, to repeal immediately Decrees Nos. 9 and 10 dissolving the executive councils of NLC, NUPENG and PENGASSAN and to allow independently elected officials to exercise their trade union functions once again. Absent any response from the Government in the Committee's subsequent report of November 1996, the Governing Body decided to make a pressing appeal to the Government of Nigeria inviting it to respond as soon as possible to the repeated requests made since November 1995 urgently to authorize an ILO mission to examine questions related to past complaints and to visit without impediment trade unionists held in detention, so as to enable the mission to present a report as soon as possible to the Committee. The Government was sent a letter to this effect on 26 November 1996 and subsequently sent a reminder on 5 February 1997. No reply has yet been received from the Government.
2. 46. Since its last examination of this case, several new decrees have been brought to the Committee's attention which appear to indicate an expansive and systematic approach to diminishing trade union rights in Nigeria. In this regard, the Committee would point out in particular the Trade Disputes (Essential Services Deregulation, Proscription and Prohibition from Participation in Trade Union Activities) Decree and the Trade Disputes (Essential Services) (Proscription) Order 1996 of 21 August 1996 which proscribe and prohibit the participation in any trade union activities of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions, the Academic Staff Union of Universities and the Senior Staff Association of Universities, teaching hospital, research institutes and associated institutions and dissolve the National Executive Council and the Branch Executive Councils operating within any university in Nigeria. Furthermore, the Trade Unions (Amendment) Decree No. 4 of 5 January 1996 restructures the previous 41 registered industrial unions into 29 trade unions affiliated to the Central Labour Organisation (named in the law) and omits from the list of registered organizations 25 previously registered and recognized trade unions of senior staff and ten employers' associations in violation of the right of both workers and of employers to establish and join organizations of their own choosing. Finally, Trade Unions (Amendment) (No. 2) Decree of 16 October 1996 (also referred to as Decree No. 26) amends the Trade Unions Act, inter alia, by granting the Minister the power to revoke the registration of any trade union in the interest of overriding public interest and substituting the right of appeal to the appropriate High Court ensured previously with a right to appeal only to the Minister. Among the various consequences of an administrative revocation of the certificate of registration of a union is the termination of automatic check-off of union dues and the decree provides a fine of 100,000 Naira and/or five years' imprisonment for the contravention of any of its provisions.
3. 47. In the light of the above, the Committee notes with ever-increasing concern the persistent deterioration of trade union rights in Nigeria. Furthermore, it profoundly regrets the lack of cooperation on the part of the Government in respect of the Committee's recommendations in this case and of the Governing Body's repeated calls for the Government to authorize an ILO mission. The Committee finds itself obliged once again to reiterate in the strongest terms the Governing Body's appeal to the Government to accept an ILO mission at the earliest possible date to examine the outstanding matters of this case.