Employers move against automatic check-off dues system

Nigerian employers are rooting for an amend¬ment to the Trade Un¬ion Act, to abrogate automatic check-off dues system and replace that with direct col¬lection of check-off dues from members by trade unions. The employers’ position is being pushed by their umbrella body, the Nigerian Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), that is ostensibly upset by what its immediate past president, Richard Uche, described as the “festering of impunity and illegal strikes, vandal¬ism of properties and rising indiscipline by trade unions”. What this means if the employers have their way, is that only workers who will¬ingly submit to be members of unions will pay check-off dues, and this would in a way detach the unions from the employers. But organised labour has warned of inherent danger in the employers’ proposal, say¬ing it is an ill wind that would blow neither the employers nor the workers any good. Abdulwaheed Omar, pres¬ident of the NLC, told Busi¬nessDay that the proposal would further fuel mistrust between the parties. He rea¬soned that rather than push to stop automatic check-off system, employers and la¬bour need to sit and look into causes of conflict which often lead to strikes and lockouts, nib them in the bud. However, in rooting for the abrogation of the automatic check-off dues system, NECA said it was ready to cooperate with labour to ensure it works, believing that this would breed industrial harmony. “In the past two years, we have almost shouted ourselves hoarse on the deca¬dent state of industrial rela¬tions in Nigeria. All we can see is the festering of impu¬nity: vandalism of properties in the course of strikes, rising indiscipline by trade union officials, disdain for Labour Ministry intervention and indifference of security out¬fits. This certainly cannot be the right context for Nigeria to maximise productivity. “In the light of the events that have transpired in the last three years which have pointed to the capability of the union to mobilise and manage its members, we be¬lieve the time is right for the government to amend the Trade Union Act in order to allow trade unions to directly collect check-off dues from their members. We want to assure the unions that we will create a conducive atmosphere for them to discharge these responsibilities as had been the case in the pre-1978 industrial relations dispensation in Nige¬ria,” said Richard Uche.