THIS year’s May Day was an opportunity for Nigerian labour centres to examine how workers are faring under the laws and their general well-being in a stifling socio-economic society. It was an occasion which revealed that even their quest for justice, in a supposed arbitration system, can be quite problematic.
Mr Falana did not appear to agree. He pointed at the connivance between the NIC and government against labour. He said: “In recent times, whenever workers decide to embark on industrial action as a last resort, the Federal Government and state governments usually rush to the National Industrial Court to apply for an interim order of injunction. Instead of asking the government to put the trade unions involved on notice, the Court will grant the order to stop the planned strike.
This scenario is worse in the case of a worker who may take his rich employer to court. It, therefore, serves the ends of justice for the establishment of a special industrial court that would speedily and conscientiously arbitrate between the employee and employer without being bogged down by technicalities. In other words, the industrial arbitration court should be more interested in the justice of a case than its technicalities.