Civil servants across the 36 states may no longer work from home as the Bola Tinubu-led federal government has expressed dissatisfaction over reduced workdays for staff on its payroll.
Politics Nigeria recalls that some state governments had earlier reduced the number of working days from five to three, as a means of curtailing the negative effect of the removal of fuel subsidy on workers.
However, director general of the National Productivity Centre (NPC), Dr. Nasir Mustapha, says such idea would hamper innovation and slow government’s programme and policy implementation.
Mustapha stated that Nigeria currently lacks the necessary infrastructure allows working from home.
“The truth is that work now is beyond physical work. Going to the office every day to do your work. You can work even when you are at home but there are issues around that in Nigeria,” he said.
“To reduce the number of days your workers will work, you should give them the facilities, the infrastructure that would enable them to work online.
“For us in this country, you need to have enough infrastructure to be able to work from home. So, reducing the number of days of work is not creative at all for a country like Nigeria.”
Mustapha noted that all over the world now, people are canvassing for less physical work appearances, stressing that the most important thing is to meet up targets when a target is set for you.
He further encouraged the state government to set up infrastructures that support workers and would make it easier for employees to go to their places of employment for the allotted amount of time under the International Labour Organization (ILO) convention.
“So, I propose that the best thing for the governors to do, is to provide facilities that would enable these workers to get to their workplaces for the period as allowed by the ILO convention.
“The convention says that workers should work for a minimum of eight hours every day from Monday to Friday, but, if they want to give some days off for their workers, they should provide the necessary facilities that would enable them to work outside their workplace.”
