A bill for the prohibition of casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sectors in the country has passed second reading in the Senate
This follows the presentation of the lead debate on the general principles of the bill by the sponsor,Sen. Ago Akinyelure ( PDP- Ondo) during plenary on Thursday.
The bill entitled”A Bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition of casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sector in Nigeriia and for related matter”, aimed to impose a legal duty on employers of labour in public and private establishments to convert casual employment to permanent status after there months of engagement
Leading the debate, Akinyelure said that casualisation of workers especially university graduates in the labour market called for concern even “as more workers continue to groan under the immoral strategy of cutting cost but employers rendering them inferior to their counterpart in other countries of the world” he said.
“Statistics from the Nigeriian Labour Congress (NLC) shows that many workers in the telecommunications,oil and gas sectors are engaged as casual labourers by employers of labour” he added.
Contributing to the debate,Sen. Smart Adeyemi (APC- Kogi) said that casualisation was an act of oppression and debasement of Nigeriars
Adeyemi called for the passage of the bill into law “to stop the enslavement”of the youths.
In his remarks, the President of the Senate,Ahmad Lawan urged relevant commitees to give stakeholders equal opportunity to air their views during public hearing on the bill.
He said much as employment of Nigeriian youths was important, there should not be any form of casualisation.
“We need employment for our youths and on the other hand,we don’t need casualisation
“We need to strike a balance so that those who have to be employed on ad-hoc basis don’t suffered too much but we will work towards ensuring pensionable employment for our people” he said.
The Senate President thereafter referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Labour, Employment and Productivity to report back in four weeks..
