From Jibrin Zaria
A lecturer at the department of Private Law at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Dr. Hassan Bala has described the invoking of “no work no pay” policy against ASUU as not only outrageous but discriminatory.
Dr. Hassan Bala made this known while speaking to newsmen in Zaria
He stressed that, strike all over the world was a fundamental and inalienable right of workers in both domestic and international laws, which the Nigeria government need to obey.
The legal luminary explained that without this undeniable right, there would not be freedom of association and workers would be more or less like slaves in their places of work.
While tracing the origin of strike in Nigeria to 1945 when government failed to increase the salaries of workers as a result of high increase of cost of living, he called on the government to listen to ASUU’s demand to improve the quality of learning in the country.
Dr. Bala said, “Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 and Sections 2 and 3 of the Trade Dispute Act, 2004, has given the Nigerian workers clearly and unequivocally provide for freedom of Association and right to strike”.
He noted that both the Trade Dispute Act and the ILO Convention have provided for exceptions and conditions for strike Action and they include among other things: strikes that are legitimate in so far as they have economic and social objectives and not purely political ones.
He explained that The convention made it clear that it should also be irrelevant that the dismissal or anti-union takes place in advance of a strike, if the purpose of the dismissal or anti-union is to impede or penalize the exercise of the right to strike.
Dr. Bala said, Nigeria as a signatory should not be an exception.
He cited as example with the Supreme Court in Abacha v. Fawehinmi (2000), which held that since the African Charter has been domesticated or has been incorporated into Nigerian Municipal Law by its ratification, it enjoys the status higher than a mere international Convention.
According to him, the Convention smartly prohibits enactments of legislation or practice by employers which subjects employees into any form of exploitations or which allows employers to recruit workers to replace their own employees who embark on legal strike.
