Senate bill prohibiting casualisation of workers passes second reading

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 was a sequel to the presentation of the lead debate on the general principles of the bill by the sponsor, Sen. Ayo Akinyelure (PDP-Ondo) during plenary on Thursday, February 18.

The bill is titled: “A Bill for an Act to provide for the prohibition of casualisation in all forms of employment in the private and public sector in Nigeria and for related matters”.

Leading the debate, Akinyelure said that the bill was read for the first time on the floor of the Senate on March 4, 2020.

He said that the casualisation of Nigerian workers especially university graduates in the labour market called for concern.

“This is as more workers continue to groan under the immoral strategy of cutting cost by employers rendering them inferior to their counterpart in other countries of the world.

“Statistics from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) shows that many workers in the telecommunications, oil and gas sectors are engaged as casual labourers by employers of labour,” he said.

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He said that the objective of the bill was to impose a legal duty on employers of labour both in public and private establishments to convert casual employments to permanent status after three months of engagement.

In his contribution, Sen. Smart Adeyemi (APC-Kogi) said that casualisation was an act of oppression and debasement of Nigerians.

“It is just inexplicable to have some of our citizens being captured under this devilish and wicked system of employment.

“Let this bill be passed into law and stop the enslavement of our youth,” he said.

In his remarks, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, urged the relevant committee to give stakeholders equal opportunity to air their views during a public hearing on the bill.

“As the bill has passed second reading, this gives the committee an avenue to consider various shades of view to be canvassed.

“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 suffer too much, but we will work towards ensuring pensionable employment for our people,” Lawan said.

He, thereafter, referred the bill to the Senate Committee on Employment, Labor and Productivity to report back in four weeks.

Other bills that passed second reading in the Senate on Thursday were: “A Bill to establish the Federal University of Special Needs Education Oyo and a Bill for an Act to provide for the legal framework to establish the Federal Medical Centres”.

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