Emmanuel Thomas, Lagos
July 8, 2015 – Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has described Monday’s picketing of THISDAY Newspapers as the beginning of the long process it will use to engage all media outfits in Nigeria owing journalists salary arrears.
Media outfits in Nigeria owe journalists salary arrears of 3 to 18 months and in the process forcing practitioners into unprofessional conducts to maintain their live style. Even some categories of staff down the line are forced are no longer able to pay for accommodation are separated from their families and forced to sleep all through the week in the office.
THISDAY for instance owes journalists a minimum of 9 month salary arrears. But in a press statement, Acting President NLC, Comrade Peters Adeyemi expressed full solidarity with affiliate members at the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) as they picket the premises of This Day for being in arrears of payment of salaries for nine months and for non-remittance of tax, pension, cooperative deductions from paid salaries.
“The principle and logic of the Labourer deserving his wages is infinite, sacred, sacrosanct and forms the grundnorm of the employer-worker relationship.
“The violation of this not only negates the essence and basis of work but imperils the family and statutory obligations of the worker to the State and his God. In a few words, it is an invitation to the creation of non-society”, the NLC said, adding that picketing of THISDAY represents a bold and courageous response after all the processes of an amicable resolution had been exhausted.
“It also represents the beginning of a long process of engagement with other non-salary-paying media organizations such as the AIT (3-6 months salary arrears); the Daily Independent (3-6 months arrears); Tell (8 months arrears); the National Mirror (4 months arrears); Newswatch Daily (7 months); The News/PM News (9 months); the Daily Champion (18 months); Hallmark (5 months) and the Daily Times (6 months).
“We stand shoulder to shoulder on the picket line with our members as they seek to enforce their fundamental rights against these organisations. In the spirit of our cherished slogan of “an injury to one is an injury to all” Congress stands ready to avail our affiliate its full solidarity and support if this unfortunate situation lingers.
“We need businesses, especially media businesses that perform the dual role of employment and watchdog. We find it an irony that these media organizations which have been in the forefront of the popular struggle for the enforcement of the social contract between the State and the Citizenry, have themselves been in default of a basic and fundamental obligation to their employees. We must point out without equivocation that this default undermines their moral authority to speak out”, the statement noted.
The NLC calls on media organizations to muster all the necessary resources to pay up not just these salary arrears but subsequent salaries as they fall due.
“The notion held by some of the proprietors that the possession alone of the identity card of their media organisations is a meal ticket, is patently false and should be discarded. If they believe it is that easy, let them run the organizations from the street themselves. A Labourer deserves his wages”, the NLC noted.
