What about Industrial Relations? (I)

It was homecoming for both the Comrade Governor who attended Senior Executive Course (SEC) 9 in 1989 and yours truly who with the encouragement of Comrade Governor (then President of NLC) attended Senior Executive Course (SEC) 27 in 2005. It was nostalgia to have an interactive session with the current participants of SEC. NO. 36. […]

It was homecoming for both the Comrade Governor who attended Senior Executive Course (SEC) 9 in 1989 and yours truly who with the encouragement of Comrade Governor (then President of NLC) attended Senior Executive Course (SEC) 27 in 2005. It was nostalgia to have an interactive session with the current participants of SEC. NO. 36. Profound appreciation goes to the Institute ably led by the DG Professor Tijjani Mohammed Bande, OFR for choosing the theme for this year’s course CHALLENGES OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, LABOUR PRODUCTIVITY AND NATIONAL DEVE-LOPMENT IN NIGERIA.  Somehow, INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS is becoming an   endangered concept. It is commendable that NIPSS brings back the concept of INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS. Nigeria’s contemporary world of work has become INDUSTRY-shy and indeed INDUSTIAL RELATIONS blind. No thanks to the culture of sharing and corruption as distinct from culture of production and value addition of the post independence era. Even up to the early 90s, industrial relations studies in our universities were as important in ranking as studies in law and businesses. The deafening collapse of industries caused by uncontrolled Globalization and new forms of employment relations such as out-sourcing, Casualisation and neo-liberal thinking that questions the essence of work altogether, Industrial relations studies assume less importance. Neo-liberalism which preaches liberalization, monetization, downsizing, privatization, lean government and the notorious philosophy that government has no business with business has done much violence to the concept of Industrial relations. Of course there can be no relations between employers and employees, or between employees in the industry when industry collapses or non- existent. Nor  can there be industrial relations when we only talk of “labour market” where the relations is often impersonal and less guided by any rules and regulations. It is certainly commendable that your NIPSS has set us thinking about the need to reinvent the industry and possibly reinvent industrial relations which  we all know  deals with all the complexity of relations at work particularly the relationship between the management and workers, workers and workers and even mangers and managers. There is an urgent need for Nigeria and indeed Africa to reinvent industry and industrialization if we must reinvent industrial relations.
Paradoxically, notwith-standing our preference to ignore production issues and be industrial relations- shy, we are ever hunted by the spectre of industrial relations crisis. Much has been said about the suspension of Sanusi Lamido former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. Most commentaries deal on the suspension deal with the reasons for the suspension, the most controversial being the alleged missing funds. Few touched at the heart of the matter; employment / industrial relations. President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua nominated Sanusi as the on 1 June 2009. His appointment was confirmed by the Senate on 3 June 2009 in record time. President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan on Thursday, 20th February 2014 suspended him from office few months to the end of an eventful, albeit controversial single 5 year term he had preferred. As a labour market student, it’s of profound academic interest of how a process driven easy entry (with appointment and senate confirmation) of a chief central banker was inversely related to his suspension/ exit without recourse to the same process that brought him to office. Secondly why will the suspension of the Governor of the CBN, impact so much on the financial market as much as the collapse of capital shares? Certainly employment relation has a lot of implications for development. In the final analysis workers who are deserving of decent works, well paid for, secured with easy entry and exit. International Labour Organization (ILO) has shown over the years that Millions of workers worldwide live on precarious works that are poorly remunerated. They get fired and hired at the behest of employers. The recent casualization of the CBN’s governor has certainly made another case for decent protected work for the driver, a messenger no less for a CBN governor. The point cannot be overstated that there is a direct relationship between industrialization, employment and poverty eradication. In fact there is no way Nigeria can meaningfully address the problem of poverty without addressing the production issues driven by human resources. As important as oil and gas industry and solid mineral resources may be, they are exhaustible. In any case there are abundant evidences to show that extractive industries are the curse rather than blessings for sustainable development in developing countries.    Employment is a derived factor. The challenge therefore is to revive the real productive sectors of the economy and creatively engage the unemployed in value-adding activities. It has long been recognized that there are positive linkages between harmonious labour-management relations and productivity increase.  The hallmark of any productive and profitable organization rests on effective and peaceful Labour/Management relations.  
This is so because where there is no understanding between Labour and Mana-gement, the environment for working conscientiously to improve productivity cannot exist. Where employers and workers cooperate on the basis of mutual trust and confidence, it is easier for them to agree on corporate policies and practices designed for productivity and competitiveness improvement and to implement participatory approaches to productivity improvement at the workplace. Witness the recent endless strikes in all sectors of the economy! On the other hand, where labour-management relations are influenced by mistrust, adverse attitudes and confrontation, productivity drives have little chance to succeed. The situation is particularly serious where opposition and confrontation lead to open conflicts and disputes which are likely to further deteriorate labour management relations, disrupt production processes/service delivery, and in some cases lead to collective work stoppages.