By Our Reporter
A university don and an expert in labour law has said the government of Kaduna State like all employers has the right to rightsize its work force.
This is the submission of Professor Abubakar Isa Bappah of the Department of Public Law, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He is of the view that any government has the legal right to right size or rationalize by whatever name it decides to adopt.
According to Bappah, “All employers of labour including government have the legal right to right size, rationalize, downsize or reduce the number of its work force by whatever name it decides to adopt provided they adhere to the provisions of the extant laws. It is apparent that, in the case of Kaduna state, the justification for the proposed right sizing of its workforce is redundancy. Section 20 of the Labour Act defines redundancies to mean an involuntary and permanent loss of employment caused by an excess of manpower.”
Bappah states further that, “In the case of redundancy the employer must inform the trade union or workers’ representatives concerned, of the reasons and the extent of the anticipated redundancy. The section further provides that where the employer has informed the trade union or workers representatives concerned of the reason and extent of an anticipated redundancy, he is required in discharging the workers affected, to adopt the principle of “Last in First Out”. However he can also have regard to such factors of relative merit, including skill, ability and reliability. Other factors that can be considered are productivity, diligence, efficiency and even experience.”
While commenting on the reasons for the current conflict however, Bappah who was the immediate past Head of Department of Public Law noted that, even though the Kaduna state Government has the legal right to embark upon the rationalization of its workforce its level of compliance with the provisions of the law might have had its effects on the conflict between it and the workers’ union.
He is also of the view that the primary function of any governor is to ensure that the worker is able to participate fully in the economic, social and political development of the state. Section 17 of the constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides inter-alia that the state must direct its policy towards ensuring that all citizens without discrimination on any ground whatsoever have the opportunity of securing adequate means of livelihood as well as adequate opportunities to secure suitable employment.
