NLC Organizes 3-Day Leadership Training Workshop

…Honours HoS, Nnubia, Others

By Mmaduabuchi Onwumelu

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Anambra State Council, has ended a 3-Day Leadership Training Workshop in Awka the Anambra State Capital, with a call on government at all levels to provide better working conditions for Nigerian workers.

Making the call during the opening of a three-day NLC Leadership Training Workshop held in Awka, with the theme, “The Role of Labour in the growth and development of Nigeria’s Economy”, the

State Council chairperson, Comrade Chinwe Orizu, stressed the need for prompt promotions and payment of workers’ emoluments.

She decried the poor workers’ wages in the country, stating that minimum wage should be higher than N50, 000 which he described as the current price of a bag of rice.

She lamented over the economic situations in the country and urged the government at all levels to upgrade workers’ remunerations to living wages capable of addressing their challenges.

Orizu said, ‘We are appealing to the federal, state, local governments and other employers, to provide descent working environments to their workers. We also demanding for prompt promotion of workers and that the financial benefits accruing to them should come immediately. It is not fair for one to wait for months or years to be paid their financial benefits after promotions.

‘Again, the economic situation has made it impossible for us workers to live. What we collect now as take homes can’t take us home again. A bag of rice has risen to about N50, 000. People are hungry. Some are underpaid, unemployed and underemployed. Poverty affects the workers mental being and output. Governments should address these challenges,’ she noted.

Orizu said the workshop was aimed at building workers’ capacities, create awareness among the working class as prerequisite for attaining a social change, deepen consciousness and build an equal society.

Earlier, a keynote speaker and lecturer, from the Department of Economics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Dr Geraldine Nzeribe, asked workers to utilise opportunities available to them to build their capacities through training and retraining, which, according to her, would assist in growing and developing the country.

The NLC equally used the opportunity to present awards to some deserving past leaders of the council, civil society leaders and others.