Construction Workers Seek Salary Review

The National Union of
Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW), has demanded for the immediate review of salary of its members nationwide.
Speaking to newsmen in Lagos yesterday the National President of the Union, Comrade Amechi Asugwuni said the union’s members in the construction sector were facing economic hardship that necessitated the union to demand for salary review to cushion the hardship faced by its members and create industrial harmony in the sector.
Asugwuni said that it was the responsibility of the Federation of Construction Industry (FOCI) being the employers regulatory body to call for the salary review, adding that in accordance with collective bargaining procedure, the salary review was due in December 2015 since the last review was done in 2013, but the employers body has failed to respect or honour the procedure.
The union boss said FOCI being the employers body was deliberately delaying the review of the salary in spite of several negotiations between the union’s leadership and the body.
He emphasized that the employers must be in line and guided with global best practice in industrial relations, quality of working conditions and regulations.
He said that the union is acting in accordance with rules of the National Joint Industrial Council (NJIC) agreement over negotiating a review of workers salary every two years.
The union leader said that the union members have been supportive and tolerant of the employers’ action, even when they embark on massive retrenchment in the sector blamed  on the present economic downturn.
Asuguni added that employers have continued to seek workers as a result of dwindling fortune as one person now does the job of three persons and the one way to compensate workers for excess job is to increase their salaries.
He said the union has commenced nationwide interactive consultation and mobilisation of its members to map out action plans on the way forward for the union, stressing that the union would not hesitate to embark on a nationwide industrial action to compel the FOCI implement salary review.