Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office.

  • Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Date:
[1949]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on Nigeria / Colonial Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    25/134 (page 23)
    originally the subject of an enquiry in 1946, was again investigated, because of the changed conditions in the area. The recommendations of the Labour Advisory Board with regard to catering and ancillary trades, retail and ancillary trades and private domestic service in Lagos, which were submitted to the Government in 1948, were further examined in 1949. In the case of private domestic service, Government decided that legislation was inappropriate and, instead issued a code of minimum conditions recommended for voluntary adoption. Following the recommendations of the Board, legislation was enacted during the year fixing minimum wages and conditions of employment for stevedore and dock labour in the port of Lagos. TRADE UNIONS The trade union movement suffered several set-backs during the year. In early January, the Trades Union Congress was split and an opposing body was set up under the title of the Nigerian National Federation of Labour. Unavailing efforts were made to reconcile the two groups. A number of strikes took place in Govern¬ ment Departments, and details of these are given below. After little more than twelve months of operation, the two Junior Service Whitley Councils have broken down. In each case, the staff side, dissatisfied with the rate of progress and with the extent of the improvements in conditions secured, withdrew from Council meetings. Owing to the split in the trade union movement the annual summer school for trade unionists was not held this year. Regional week-end schools were organised and well attended in Lagos, Ibadan (Western Provinces) and Enugu (Eastern Provinces). The Trade Union Officer began a course of twelve monthly lessons on trade unionism, on the same lines as that run by Ruskin College, Oxford, for colonial trade unionists. One hundred and fifty-four trade unionists are taking the course, representing 58 trade unions. During the year, every registered trade union in the country was supplied with illustrative examples of trade union accounts. A letter was also sent to each trade union, offering the assistance of the Trade Union Officer in operating an efficient method of keeping accounts. More than twenty unions have already taken advantage of the offer. The tin-mining trade unions amalgamated in 1948, and were duly registered in 1949 as one trade union. A matter of importance and interest was an application from the tin-mining employers to register as an association. This is the first employers’ organisation in the country to be registered as a trade union. There are seven registered unions catering for railway workers and there has been some discussion concerning the possibility of their amalgamation.