Collective Bargaining and Industrial Harmony in the Nigerian Public Service
Chapter One
Objective of the study
The main objective of the study is to examine collective bargaining and industrial harmony in public services, using Lagos state University as a case study.
The specific objective however includes:
- To examine the nature of collective bargaining in Lagos state university.
- To examine the effect of leadership tussle among labour leaders on the effectiveness of collective bargaining in Lagos state university.
- To examine whether political interest of labour leaders affects the efficacy of collective bargaining as an instrument of industrial harmony in Lagos state university.
- To examine the effect of weak legal framework for enforcing collective agreement on industrial harmony in Lagos state university.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Introduction
The literature review is the crucial aspects of research enterprise. Obasi (1999) opined that, it enables a writer to obtain the state of the art or knowledge about development in given subject matter.
Nwogu, (1991) in his own contribution, succinctly observes, “that literature review is critical aspect of any research which a researcher cannot ignore”.
We can for a moment define literature review as a critical examination of the existing works in a field under study. The definition implies that the reviewer ought to be interested in discovering contributions made in the field as well as identifying the gap, which exist.
This review of literature is thematically organized under the following subheadings;
- Concept of Industrial Conflict
- Causes of Industrial Conflict
- Effects of Industrial Conflict in Nigerian Universities
- Forms of Industrial Action
- Mechanisms for the Resolution of Industrial Conflicts
- Concept of Collective Bargaining
- Functions of Collective Bargaining
- Collective Bargaining Process and Industrial Relations Environment
- Appraisal of the Conflict Management/Collective Bargaining Technique.
- Critiques of the works on Collective Bargaining
- Summary of the Literature Review
Conflicts are not necessarily good or bad but an evitable feature of organizational life and should be judge in terms of its effects, despite great care to try and avoid conflicts, it will still occur. Conflict will continue to emerge despite attempts by management to suppress it.
In this section, attempt is made to review relevant works of experts and scholars in relation to Industrial Conflicts and Collective Bargaining in Nigerian Universities with LASU as the focus.
Literature Review
Concept of Industrial Conflicts
Many discussion s of industrial conflicts simply refers to strikes (Fashoyin, 1980).Strikes are the most overt and the most significant aspect of industrial conflicts, But they are unfortunately only part of the phenomenon of conflicts. An off-quoted definition of industrial conflict is the one provided by Kornhanser, Dubin and Rose (1954).
… the total range of behaviour and attitudes that express opposition and divergent orientations between industrial owners and managers on the hand and working people and their organization on the other”.
This definition suggests that industrial conflict occur between group that is at the collective level, personality and other structural variables come into play. But it tends to restrict the phenomenon to what transpires between two opposing groups, owners/managers versus working people and their organizations. As many studies have revealed and is a common place, there is intra-management conflict just as conflicts do occur between and among groups of workers and their organization. Clearly then, there is also conflict at the levels of individuals often referred to as personality conflicts.
It is said that industrial conflicts may be organized or unorganized. Organized conflicts are likely to form part of conscious strategy to change the situation, which identified as the source of discontent. While unorganized conflicts, the worker respond to the situation in the only way open to him as individual that is by withdrawal from the source of discontent or individuals sabotage and rudeness. Such reaction, it has been argued, rarely derives from any calculative strategy; indeed unorganized expressions of conflicts are often not regarded as conflict by the persons in the situations (Otobo, 2000).
More often than not the attempt by management and employees to advance set objectives result in altercations which usually degenerate into strike action, demonstration, ill -feeling and general lack of requisite goodwill and commitment necessary in work situations. As a result, industrial conflict has become a common feature virtually every organization.
Admitting this universalism, Chandan, (1987), observes “the concept of conflict being an outcome of behaviour is an integral part of life” just like LASU and other Universities.
A study by Thomas and Schmidt, (1976) found that managers spend up to 20% of their time in dealing with conflict situation. In the intendment of this discourse, manager is not limited to the organizational heads but include all persons holding positions of trust in political system such as the members of the arms of government and others whom people are subordinate. As it concerns Nigeria, conflict, whether of ethnic, religious, community or organizational colourations are fast becoming an entrenched way of life with particular emphasis on organizational conflicts.
Ezeani (2002) posited that: For the average Nigerian it does not longer come as a surprise to hear that industrial conflict in the form of strike is taking place in any part of the Nigerian public organizations.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The study is a survey in the form of a descriptive study in which data will be collected across a population through sampling. The research design of this study is a survey based on a structured questionnaire. The researcher in this type of research design has no control over the variables from which the opinions of the respondents are elicited. It enables hypotheses to be tested empirically and logical conclusions can be generalized from the entire sample used for the study. The questionnaires were administered personally by the researcher to the respondents to ascertain collective bargaining and industrial harmony in Nigerian higher institutions, focusing on Lagos state university.
Sources of Data
The data for this study were generated from two main sources; Primary sources and secondary sources. The primary sources include questionnaire, interviews and observation. The secondary sources include journals, bulletins, textbooks and the internet.
Population of the Study
The target population for this study comprises of staff of Lagos state university. The estimated population of staff (both academic and non-academic) was put at 812 by the official website/portal of Lagos state university.
Sampling of the study
From the population, a sample of 150 respondents were used for the study. These figures represented approximately 5 percent of the total staff (both academic and non-academic). In selecting the sample size, the researcher adopts the purposive random sampling method. This method was used in order to get a representative opinion of staff of the institutions.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA ANALYSIS, PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION
Data Presentation
This chapter analysed the data collected in the field work for the study. Out of one hundred and fifty (150) questionnaires administered, one hundred and fifty (148) were duly completed and returned. This represented approximately 99.6% of the total questionnaires administered by the researcher. The remaining five questions constituting 0.4% were categorized as sampling error due to the fact that they were returned without complete details. The following tables shows the responses to the questions asked in section A of the questionnaire.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary of findings
Perhaps the most important justification for collective bargaining lies in its democratic attributes. Collective bargaining is intended to be a mutual give and take between representative of two organizations for mutual benefits of both in collective bargaining negotiation about the working conditions and term of employment between an employer or one more employer association on the one hand and one or more representative of works organizations on the other hand. The reality in Nigeria however is that the principle of collective bargaining is hardly adhere to due to a plethora of factors. In the case of Lagos state university, while it was agreed that collective bargaining is a veritable instrument for ensuring industrial harmony, the collective barging process as a tool for promoting industrial harmony has been inundated by problems such as corrupt practices, leadership tussle, political interest/affiliations of union leaders and weak legal framework for successful implementation of collective agreement. The study further revealed that collective bargaining in Lagos state university is seriously undermined by the activities of the management of Lagos state university, zero sum nature of governance, political interest of union leaders, poor negotiating skills and idiosyncratic behavior of labour union leaders in Lagos state university.
Conclusion
Over the years, it has been discovered that in any human relationship organisation that there is bound to be conflict, arguments and mis-understanding which is inevitable, but the manner in which it is handed to find solution can either reconcile the conflicting parties or permanently damage the relationship. The working environment is not left out, since conflicts are prevalent in all human arrangement but our focus shall be on labour management relations and how conflict that occur between employer(s) and employee(s) can be managed and regulated through collective bargaining since it forms the basis for industrial relationship. Given that public policy provide the basis for the labour and management relationship, it is the responsibility of the union and management to organise themselves on how to relate to one another under the broad framework of objectives which each party seeks to achieve. The machinery through which this relationship is regulated is referred to as Collective Bargaining and Industrial Relations. However evidence from our study and other studies carried out revealed that the collective bargaining process in higher institutions in Nigeria and Lagos state university in particular is bedeviled by many factors that act as a cog in making the collective bargaining process a veritable instrument for promoting industrial harmony. It is against this backdrop that the following recommendations were outlined
Recommendations
Generally, we have examined the challenges of collective bargaining at the local government level. The study posits that there is no alternative to industrial harmony order than ensuring the principle of collective bargaining.
- The study therefore recommend the building of co-operative spirit in other to maintain a stable and sustainable economic, social and political development of the country. Although there has been records of misdirection and misplaced priority by some of the unionists, but with the recent socio-economic development in Nigeria, one can imagine the influence trade unionism could have in the country if proper guidance and support are given to them by the government or other superior authorities or agencies.
- This not withstanding, there is still some degree of restructuring needed in the various trade unions operating in the country. Of great importance is the level of agreements that is usually entered into between the workers union and the government or an other agency. Collective bargaining we have stated becomes the best measure in the process of disputeresolution that if not checked could lead to a drop in national productivity and national development in general. Thus, apart from the ugly pursuit and non implementation or certain agreements reached during collective bargaining, the government should equally make the welfare of the worker a priority. In this regard, government should promote good governance with emphasis on rule of rule, equity, social justice especially as it concern the distribution and allocation of resources. In addition government should strive to diversify the economy so as to generate enough revenue that could be re-injected into the economy to promote growth and development and generally the standard of living.
- On the other hand labour union should promote the principle of collective bargaining instead of embarking on incessant strike that would disrupt the economy and inadvertently affect productivity and by extension government capacity to meet their
- In addition, the integrity of labour union members needs to be examined critically, so that they do not compromise or betray the trust of union members.
- Union leaders should try as much as possible to separate their personal interest and ambition from the collective interest of union members.
- It is also recommended that union members should undergo training to sharpen their negotiating skills in order to ensure that they are able to wrestle positive positive from the collective bargaining process.
- The need to develop a good mortaring procedure or machinery that will ensure the active and actual practice of collective bargaining in all organizations.
- Government should also learn to respect and honour collective agreement in order to build trust and confidence in industrial relations process.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Text Books
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- Beardwell, 1.et al (2004/ Human Resource Management: A contemporary approach. London: Pearson Education Ltd.
- Boulding, K.E (1972). Conflict and Defence: A general theory; New York McGraw Hill.
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- Cole, G.A. (2002).Personnel and Human Resource Management.London: Book Thomson Learning.
- Crunch, C. (1977).Class Conflict and Industrial Relations Crisis.London: Humanities press.
- Denga, D and Denga, H. (1998).Educational Malpractice and Integrated Approach, New York: Harcourt Brace College publishers.
