A bill sponsored by Senator Mohammed Sani (APC-Niger) which seeks to regulate the employment of domestic workers and other informal sector employees has on Wednesday scaled second reading at the Senate.
Sani while presenting the bill, said that it also sought to authorise the National Directorate of Employment (NDE) to monitor privately owned agencies that employ informal workers.
He mentioned that operations in the informal sector were usually on a small scale with labour-intensive production and private ownership driven.
He said the participation of the Nigerian economy by the informal sector brought to light evidence of abuse of employee rights and non-implementation of labour regulations.
“Informal sector in Nigeria has practices that are not in conformity to the International Labour Organization (ILO) best practices as ratified in its convention, notwithstanding that Nigerian is a signatory to this conventions.
“There are still a lot of deficits in its implementation of these conventions, one such area of concern relates to decent work deficit, decent work is work with fair and equal treatments, decent remuneration, and fair condition of employment, safety and social protection, opportunities for training and collective bargaining.”
He said also that the objective of the bill was to adjust the sector to promote strategic objectives, promotion of rights at work, employment, social protection and social dialogue.
Stressing that on the contrary, many jobs in the informal labour market still experienced decent work discrepancies, adding that employees in the informal sector were often seen as having no rights, and are not treated fairly by their employers.
According to him, the bill seeks to correct all the ills against the workers.
“This bill empowers the National Director of Employment (NDE) to issue licences and monitor the activities of employment agencies throughout the country.
“The NDE shall receive an application from an agency who desires to function as an employment agency and issue a licence having met the requirements and duly certified to play by the rules.
“The certification includes that there is no criminal case against such an agency, that it maintains proper books of accounts among other rules.”
Sen. Sabi Abdullahi (APC- Niger) contributing, said that it was also important to ensure that the bill has provisions to protect employers as there have been instances where employees treated the employers unfairly.
Following approval of the bill for second reading, President of Senate Ahmad Lawan subsequently, referred it to Committee on Labour and Productivity for a further legislative response.
The committee is expected to return in four weeks.
