Labour Minister Calls For ECS Review, Employers' Sanction

Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige, the minister of Labour and Employment, said over the weekend in Abuja that the Employees Compensation Scheme (ECS) Act 2010 should be reviewed to include stiff penalties for employers that failed to register their employees on the scheme.

Chris Ngige

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According to Vanguard, the minister gave this admonition to the management of Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), telling them to take the ECS to the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, for them to know the benefits of the scheme.
Ngige who is a former member of the 7th Senate strongly regretted the low level of compliance with the scheme since four years from when it was promulgated and implemented.

The labour minister stressed that the trust fund management should be tough on defaulters, lamenting that he had not heard of any prosecution of employers for non-compliance.
The former governor of Anambra state said: “We have no option but to push the ECS to performance level. There is no doubt that the idea is a great one. We must, however, ensure that Nigerians feel the positive impact of this initiative.
“I think that the management has to engage the governors through the Governors’ Forum so that we can explain the advantages of this scheme to them. I believe that the stipends to be paid on employees’ salaries are small to the advantages that the scheme gives to workers especially when they are injured in the course of work.
“I believe every governor would be happy to hear about the numerous advantages that their workers stand to benefit by joining the scheme.
“It is not acceptable that no employer has been sanctioned for non-compliance especially when cases or non-compliance abound. This must change.”
Senator Ngige said these following an earlier statement made by the managing director and chief executive of the NSITF, Umar Abubakar.
Abubakar had said that some of the challenges confronting the trust fund were inadequate comprehensive data on all employees on government’s payroll and non-compliance by state governments and many organizations in the private sector of the economy.
Meanwhile, one of the sons of the late Kogi state governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress has accused the national chairman of the party, John Oyegun, and the secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir David Lawal, of imposing Yahaya Bello on the people of of Kogi against their wishes.