Employers must embrace responsible corporate practices- DG, NECA

The Director General of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), Adewale Smatt-Oyerinde, has emphasised the need for employers in Nigeria to embrace responsible business conduct in their operations to grow locally and in the international market.

Smatt-Oyerinde made this known during an awareness-raising workshop organised by NECA in partnership with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and International OE in Lagos for enterprises on the ILO MNE declaration to promote sustainable and responsible business practices. 

Citing that the conversation in labour circles is moving away from doing business for profit to doing business responsibly, he attributed the workshop’s relevance to NECA and its member companies’ desire to join the global community in promoting responsible corporate practices.

According to him, the workshop would undoubtedly help create leverage for member companies so that they can handle the challenges of sustainability and human rights that have become focal points in the workplace. He further disclosed that new realities in the workplace ecosystem have shown that enterprises globally now pay adequate attention to sustainability, environment, social, and corporate governance issues.

“Business and human rights are major issues that we align with because the IOE, our global partner, aligns with them. It means doing business while taking cognisance of human rights. It is about looking at how business operations, which take care of human rights, affect everybody in the value chain of work,” he said.

Shedding light on the purpose of the workshop, which is a coordinated activity supported by the ILO and IOE to ensure that everybody is involved, with NECA as the focal point, he explained that responsible business conduct was now a reality, as no hiding place existed for anyone, including NECA and its member companies.

He also believes that the training will address the knowledge gap among some member companies and deepen engagement and participation in responsible corporate practices among members who already have the knowledge.

Asked to comment on the country’s 51-year-old labour laws, he said that though new realities such as care and platform economies might be contending with the laws, governments need to expedite action on their passage in the same manner they did with the minimum wage law.

One of the guest speakers, Benedetta Nobile, Project Technical Officer, Multinational Enterprises and Responsible Business Conduct Unit (MULTI/RBC), ILO, identified productive employment, rights at work, social protection, and social dialogue as central pillars crucial to achieving decent work.

Also speaking during the workshop, Kinga Dery, Human Rights Specialist at the International Organisation of Employers (IOE), charged the government to look at the root causes of all elements that hinder responsible business conduct.

At different sessions, participants urged employers to develop a roadmap supporting responsible business conduct for the realisation of decent work.