Labour Decries Law Establishing National industrial Court

Labour Decries Law Establishing National industrial Court

The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC)'s head of administration and establishment, Mr Emma Ugboaja, has decried the law establishing the National Industrial court.

Ugboaja told newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja that the law had spoilt the specialised nature of the Industrial Court and made it look like a regular court.

President Goodluck Jonathan on March 4, signed the bill formally establishing the National Industrial Court into law.

At the signing ceremony, Jonathan expressed hope that the constitutional establishment of the National Industrial Court would institutionalized the process for quick, fair and efficient resolution of disputes relating to labour, employment, industrial relations, workmen compensation, child labour, discrimination, pensions, health and safety in the workplace.

The Bill

The new Act gives the National Industrial Court (NIC) exclusive jurisdiction to determine all civil cases relating to industrial disputes and labour matters, making it a superior specialised court. The new NIC would mean that labour matters would no longer be subject to the congestion of the nation's regular court and thus go a long way to accelerate trials on labour matters.

Removed essence

He described as unfortunately, the situation, which he said has totally taken away the soul of the National Industrial Court; leaving the nation with a regular court, pretending to be an industrial court.

“So the essence of the industrial court has been taken away, and with that, there is no need, the cases could jolly well go to any High Court or to any Federal High Court, because the essence of the specialised nature has been torn off from the body of the National Industrial Court,'' he said.

The industrial national court

Ugboaja said that there was the need to fully understand the rationale behind the setting up of the industrial court in the first instance.

He explained that the court was established in 1976 after the regular courts had failed to deliver judgments that guaranteed industrial harmony and the economy was suffering since their decisions always meant that there was a winner or a loser.

He noted that the industrial court helped to reduce industrial unrest or disharmony that would have affected the economy.

In his words, “the National Industrial Court is a creation of a situation where the High Court then was seen as not being able to tackle the issues of industrial unrest and cases of that nature that were brought to it.”

He said that unlike the regular courts where the winner ran away with mega costs and compensation, the industrial court kept work and family together.

Implications of the new court

Ugboaja stressed that the new industrial court would definitely impact negatively on the economy because workers would react negatively anytime they found that they could not get justice.

He said that the new industrial court would require workers to pay to get an advocate; emphasizing that no worker earning 18,000 Naira - which is the new minimum wage per month - can afford it.

Ugboaja also likened any action taken to the new court to any other taken to a regular court where representations were made by lawyers.

NAN/Williams