Federal Executive Council on Wednesday approved a White Paper that will ensure drastic changes in federal public service.

The White Paper was produced from report of technical committee on industrial relations matters.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Mr Chris Ngige, disclosed this to State House correspondents at the end of the weekly meeting of the council presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Highlights of the provisions contained in the approved White Paper, according to the minister, include outlawing of private practice by government officials, especially health workers; the enforcement of the ‘no work, no pay’ rule; tenure of maximum of two terms for workers holding executive positions in unions and the pegging of doctors’ residency training at seven years, among others.

Ngige said the steps were necessary because the nation’s public service had been bedevilled by various problems and conflicts.

He said the technical committee that came up with the report was inaugurated in April 2016 and it submitted its report in October 2017.

He explained that after the submission of the report, FEC empanelled a 10-man committee which he chaired to draft a White Paper on those contentious areas that the technical committee had looked at.

The minister said, “These contentious areas are the enforcement of Section 43 of Trade Dispute Act Law of the Federation 2004. This is the section that deals with lockout of workers by their employers without declaring redundancy appropriately because the same establishment, especially in the private sector workers are locked out by their employers.

“So, the law that says that if you lock out your workers without passing through the normal channel, due process for the period of the lock-out, the worker is assumed to be at work and will receive all remunerations and allowances and benefits accruing to him for the period and that period will also be counted to him as a pensionable period in computation of his pension.

“But when workers go on strike, the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ will also be applied because that principle is enshrined in that same Section 43 of the Labour Act.

“That section says for the period a worker withdraws his services, government or his employers are not entitled to pay and the period for which they were absent will not count as part of his pensionable period in the public service.

“So, Council accepted it as a White Paper recommendation that should be gazetted because even National Industrial Court has made pronouncement on that law and said that it is clear.”

With the approval of the White Paper, Ngige also said private practices by medical workers, teachers and others have been outlawed.

He explained, “There is the issue of abuse of private practice by health professionals in full employment in public health institutions. There have been a lot of hues and cries about doctors establishing private clinics, visiting maybe the health institution they are serving once a week, then spend all their times in the private clinics.

“There is also the case of laboratory technologists doing so; there is also the case of even teachers who own private schools.

“Government has said that a circular has to come out after a special committee of government has looked at this and given government full recommendations on how to curb that particular practice which had been causing a lot of harm especially in the public health institutions.”

He added, “There is also the issue of classification of research centres in federal public service and the issue of directors general and Chief Executive Officers of Research Institutes remaining within research institutes after serving out their tenure.”

Ngige said another area covered by the White Paper is about public servants remaining permanently on the executive bodies of trade unions.

He said the government had realised that some persons in the public service would go for trade union executive positions, holding offices for life for as long as they were in the service.

In doing so, he said the affected officials would refuse postings and redeployment under the guise that they were doing trade union activities.

This, he said, would no longer be accepted.

He added, “Government says no. You have to be a public servant first before you become a trade unionist. Therefore, if you are there, the public service rules should also be applied to you and in doing so, government says establishments will look at issues and give them a human face in order not to disrupt trade unionism; and in furtherance to this, government has also said there must be tenure stipulations because people stay there without tenure. Many organisations give people union positions without tenure.

“Government says there is no office that doesn’t have tenure. Trade unions now should give us constitution that must have tenure at least maximum of two tenure for any elective position.”

Ngige said the government also took a decision on collective bargaining because often times, fake circulars are being presented by people who come for collective bargaining agreements.

He added that even some parastatals do present documents that cannot be authenticated.

“Government therefore says all collective agreements must be authenticated by the rightful authorities and domiciled with Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment,” he said.

Ngige also said the government has outlawed skipping in the medical profession.

Skipping is a situation where workers jump salary scales.

“Next point is the issue of skipping. You all know about the history of skipping. The doctors want to skip, the laboratory technologists want to skip, always especially in the medical sector.

“It has now spilled over into the general public service. Therefore, government says Head of Service of the Federation must bring out a circular immediately to stop skipping arrangements,” he said.

The minister also said the government had pegged the duration for residency training for medical doctors at seven years.

He said residency training was not a permanent job and should not be seen as one.

He added, “The next point is the issue of resident training for medical doctors. The medical training for resident doctors has been contentious.

“Some medical doctors come into the training and become professional unionists and stay there as a permanent job.

“The residency training is actually not a permanent job as such; it is a conveyor built arrangement by which you stay and drop off; another people come in so government has fixed tenure for resident training: seven years within which you must pass all your exams.

“If you don’t pass all your exams after seven years, you are off.”

According to the minister, the White Paper also dealt with the issue of professional rivalry in the health sector.

He said the government had directed Secretary to the Government of the Federation to process the report and its White Paper that was done by the former committee in 2015 and then present to government for deliberation and reprocessing.

This, he said, was in a bid to stem industrial crisis in the health sector.

He added, “There is the issue of non-government employees representing government and non- public officers leading negotiating team with unions on behalf of government.

“There is a particular incongruous situation that has existed and has caused government a lot of problems.

“You sometimes see chairman of a University Governing Council or Polytechnic going to lead government delegation and enter into agreement that cannot be implemented.

“So government realises the problem it causes and now says in the White Paper that will come out that non-government employees will not lead government delegation.

He added, “There are enough memories to be recovered in bureaucracy in any given MDA. Therefore, outsiders coming to lead government delegations will not happen.

“In the same vein, outsiders also coming in to lead trade union delegation conciliations and collective bargaining agreement is also to be stopped because oftentimes, those people employed who are not elected officers of unions will come to negotiations and will never look at things dispassionately.

“They want to impress their employers or they want to prolong whatever discussion is going on. So government want to put a stop to it.”

Let FG write us and we’ll take action – NMA

Nigerian Medical Association has said it will take action at the appropriate time if it gets a circular from the Federal Government prohibiting private practice by government doctors.

NMA President, Dr Francis Faduyile, stated this in an interview, saying, “This is the first time I am hearing this. I have not seen any such paper. Let them officially write us. We have a rule that has given doctors a chance to open clinics.

“At the appropriate time, we will see what will happen. Is it not this government that is known for saying something and then you ask; where is the circular?”

NLC rejects ‘no work no pay’

In its reaction to the development, Nigeria Labour Congress rejected the principle of ‘no work, no pay,’ saying every worker deserved a salary after 30 days.

NLC President, Mr Ayuba Wabba, stated that the principle of ‘no work, no pay’ was contrary to the spirit of the law, adding that the government should have placed it side by side with ‘no pay, no work.’

He said, “You cannot apply any law contrary to the spirit of that law. You can’t apply no work, no pay in isolation, you must put it side by side with no pay, no work. That’s the principle.

“I think it is done with a bad intention and workers and unions would not be cowed by that in not exercising their rights to withdraw their services in any circumstance where their expectations are not met. That cannot limit workers rights.

“The law is very explicit, after 30 days, the workers must be paid. It would have made sense if they made it, no pay, no work. They are not slaves; it is only a slave you would apply such laws to.

NLC Secretary-General, Mr Peter Ozo-Eson, said there was no basis for the White Paper, particularly on the tenure of union officials.

Ozo-Eson said, “Unions’ activities and tenure of their officials are governed by their constitutions. The tenure is specified, so I don’t know in what capacity the government was issuing a White Paper.

“I don’t recall that there has been any report that has been done on that. On what basis is the White Paper being issued? We have to see it before we can effectively respond; we do know that unions are governed by their own constitutions and not by any other persons.”

Punch