Steel and engineering workers shut down Lambert Electromec, a Lagos-based electronic company, yesterday, alleging anti-labor violations.
Workers from the Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria (SEWUN) and the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) picketed the company in the early hours of Tuesday to enforce a court judgment that granted the company’s employees the right to unionize.
In August 2020, the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) ruled in favor of SEWUN. Workers headed by the union’s leadership shut up the entrance to the company, which is located in Parkview Estate in the Ikoyi neighborhood of Lagos Island, as early as 7 a.m., disrupting the company’s commercial activities for the day.
However, after nearly two hours, management summoned the leadership for a meeting, and an hour later, both parties signed an agreement that finally granted workers the right to unionize.
However, Mr Jonathan Ikiebe, counsel to the company, stated that management opted to enter into terms of settlement with the workers, resulting to the signing of the picketing order.
‘’ This has been going on for almost two years; the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) issued an award stating that we should recognize the union, which we contested on the grounds that due process was not followed.
“We have now permitted that to go; we have agreed that we recognize them as a union in this industry and that they can continue with their activities: we have signed to that effect,” Ikiebe explained.
Mr Chris Onyeka, Assistant General Secretary of the NLC and one of the leaders who spearheaded the picketing, said the management had showed increased responsibility and understood the necessity of obeying the laws of the land.
“Lambert Electromec has decided on their own initiative to demonstrate responsibility; that they are now going to be a responsible corporation; that they would observe Nigerian laws,” he stated.
