PRESS RELEASE
29TH OF MAY 2026
ICJ RULING ON RIGHT TO STRIKE IS A LANDMARK VICTORY FOR WORKERS: NECA’S ATTEMPT TO WEAKEN IT IS A DEFENCE OF EXPLOITATION
The Director-General of NECA, Mr Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde in a painful but avoidable and needless act of hair-splitting, said on TVC that the right to strike is not automatic and that resort has to be had to the extant corpus of Labour Law, especially S.43 of Trade Dispute Act (TDA). This was while responding to the ruling of the ICJ on whether the right to strike is implicit in Convention 87.
Although Mr Oyerinde tried to give background information on this matter, he was economical with it. He also made allusion to the meeting of social partners to fashion out complimentary conditions as a precondition for a declaration of a strike.
However, at the end of it all he agreed to submit to the operation of the structure and provisions of the corpus of our Labour Law.
Truth is, following complaints by the Employers Group on whether the right to strike is implied in Convention 87, debates held at various levels of ILO and the general direction was that it is. Not satisfied, the matter went to the Governing Board which (through a majority decision) affirmed that it is.
Still not satisfied, the Employers Group appealed to the ICJ (Internacional Court of Justice) which decided the matter in favour of workers. Given the fact that the ICJ is the highest and last court to entertain this matter, we were at a loss by the prescriptive review of Mr Oyerinde.
One of the fundamental principles of Law is that the Law must be obeyed wholly and not selectively. Nigeria ratified Convention 87 in 1960 underscoring the importance in which it was held, and still held. Now, that the highest court in the world has ruled that the right to strike is implied in the Convention, it behooves upon Nigeria including NECA which Mr. Oyerinde represents to obey this law unconditionally and not selectively.
As for the de facto operation of the strike aspect of this ruling, it is important to know that strike has never been the first option for workers. It is the last. It has always been, and workers do not intend to change this. It is reason we find Mr. Oyerinde’s intervention on TVC as an unnecessary academic exercise in futility.
We counsel that adversarial interpretation of the ruling of the ICJ will not be helpful to our collective course. Respect for the law and mutual respect for the parties will.
On our part, we have always played by the rules and never in breach of the law. We intend to keep it so.
Comrade Joe Ajaero
President