By VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

IT was a five-day intensive training for a cream of human resources practitioners from leading companies across the country that took place at the ancient city of Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

Between Monday and Friday, participants at the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA, 47th Advanced Course on Human Resources Management and Labour and Employment Relations, were drilled theoretically on current trends in human resources and employment relations as well as practical negotiation exercises.

Issues: Seasoned resource persons took participants through topics such as Structure of collective bargaining in Nigeria, Core conventions of International Labour Organisation, ILO, and its impact on workplace industrial relations practice, audit of Human Relations and process: Issues at stake, managing and retaining a multi-generational and multi-cultural workplace:

*Participants at NECA 47th Advanced Course on Human Resources Management and Labour and Employment Relations

New sourcing strategies

Issues at stake and contemporary Human Resource recruitment tools, social media network and new sourcing strategies. Others topics were the concept and practice of human resource business partner:

The clear addition to business,  employee relation model of  industrial relations, effective conduct and management of redundancy, managing outsourcing without stress: Perspectives from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity and Service provider,  the existing legal framework for the practice of labour and industrial relations in Nigeria: The right bases approach, challenges and the way forward, preparing for negotiations: Issues, strategies and tactics, effective conflict and strike management and management’s workers and union rights, duties obligation and limitation in the workplace.

Collective Bargaining: Presenting a paper on “Current environment of employment and Labour Relations in Nigeria: Impact Assessment, Issues and the Way Forward, NECA’s Deputy Director Economic and Labour matter, Timothy Olawale, said among others, globally, “collective bargaining is a means to institutionalise labour relations and settle workplace disputes through dialogue; build  trust and cooperation- bedrock of sound employment relations.

Collective bargaining is a tool for genuine social partnership between employers and employee organizations, it is used to address change such as the recent global economic crisis, regulate relationship between management and workers, determine the wages and conditions of service workers and set out the rules that would govern the work place.” “Collective bargaining agreements are an important means of guaranteeing decent working conditions and sound labour relations. Overtime, collective bargaining agenda has expanded in many parts of the world.”

Presenting a paper on “Managing outsourcing without stress: Perspectives from the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity”, Lagos State Controller, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Mrs Nofisat  Arogundade, said  while the business of a company into core and non-core, contended that  jobs on the organogram of the company were core jobs and must be occupied by permanent employees of the company that outsourcing should be restricted to non-core business of the company such as driving, cleaning, off loading of goods, etc.

Represented by an Assistant  Director in the Ministry, Olayanju Omoniyi, Arogundade said “Contract staff who meets company recruitment standards should be given opportunity for regular employment when vacancies exist in line with company’s recruiting standards.”

Unionization: “It is the right of every worker (including workers in Free Trade Zone, FTZ and Export Processing Zone, EPZ) to be unionized and bargain collectively and should not be overtly or covertly hindered. The principal should facilitate union and collective bargaining of the contract workers. Trade union membership of Labour contact is determined by the economic activities of the principals, whilst that of service contractor is determined by the economic activities of the contractor company.

Where a service contractor is engaged in multiplicity of economic activities that makes it difficult to pin the contact down to a particular area in the 3rdschedule of part B of the Trade Union Act, staff off such contractor company shall belong to the Trade Union where the contractor in reference operate without prejudice to deployment. Information concerning outsourcing arrangements should be made available to the union when required.”

“Contract agreement between principal company and the contractor should make collective bargaining between contractors and their employees mandatory. The collective bargaining shall be between the relevant trade unions and the workers direct employers or contractors’ forum and not the principal. Employers and employees alike shall respect and uphold the sanctity of collective bargaining agreements.”

Job Security, capacity building for contract staff: According to her, “In order to ensure job security for contract staff ,parties should endeavour to make contract tenure to be 2 years. Where there is a change of contractor, roll over/rehiring of employees of the former contractor should be encouraged subject to satisfactory performance of the affected staff. Contractors should be required to submit remuneration and training development plan for their employees in accordance with extent labour legislations during prequalification for contracts. Every contractor shall have recruiter’s licence and it shall be an offence for the principal to deal with a contractor without valid recruiter’s licence.”