Managing Director, Bank of Agriculture, Prof Danbala Danju, (left) welcoming the team leader, Word Bank, Mr Muli Musinga, to the Bank of Agriculture headquarters in Kaduna on Tuesday.

The leadership of the
National Union of Civil Engineering Construction Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW) has lamented the incessant violation of labour laws of the country by foreign construction firms operating in Nigeria.
In a statement issued by the union on Monday and signed by its National President, Comrade Amechi Asgwuni  he announced the attitude of the contruction firms of undermining the rights of the workers by sheer neglect of respecting the industrial tool of negotiation as stipulated in the country’s extant labour law.
Asgwuni said that the union has called for a peaceful negotiation with their various employers in the construction sector for the review of the workers salary which is usually done every two years at the National Joint Industrial Consultative (NJIC) meeting but the employers have refused to honour such meeting, stressing that the union has no alternative than to down tool until the employers respect the rights of the workers.
The union boss said that the employers in the construction sector want to scrap the review of  workers salary which is done every two years, insisting that such policy is very obnoxious and unacceptable to the union as it clearly violates the rights of the workers in the sector.
He said that all the sectors in the economy have NJIC and therefore construction sector cannot be an exception adding that all the entire workers in the construction sector are involved in the struggle for better.
The union president said that the union has already lost over 100,000 of its members as result of redundancy in the sector, adding that the union leadership supported the employers.
Asqwuni called on the federal Ministry of Labour and Employment not to support the foreign firms operating in the construction sector against Nigerians workers rights, adding that the ministry must act appropriately and compel the employers negotiate with the workers over their entitlements.
In the same vein the Rivers State chairman of the union Comrade Temple Melford has called on the union members to remain calm as the union leadership would never compromise on the welfare of the union members.
Melford stated this while speaking to The Tide at the union office in Port Harcourt on Monday, explaining that the entire construction workers are in support of the union leadership for the workers to down tools until the employers review the workers salary and respect the country labour laws.
He reiterated the determination of the union members to ensure that the country extant labour laws are strictly adhered to by the foreign firms in the construction sector.

Philip Okparaji