BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG
STAKEHOLDERS in the nation’s labour industry gathered in Ilorin, the  Kwara State capital recently to seek ways of minimizing industrial unrest in workplaces and the Nigeria’s national life.

The event was the 7th National Labour Relations Summit and Awards Ceremony organised by the Michael Imoudu Institute for Labour Studies, MINILS, at the institute’s resource centre, Ilorin and the theme was “Consensus Building, Conflict Management and Social Transformation in Nigeria: An Industrial Relations Perspective”.

The institute explained that the summit was aimed at examining the role of the social partners in promoting  consensus building approach to the development process in Nigeria.

Welcoming participants and other guests,  Director General/Chief Executive of MINILS, Dr. Niyi Olarenwaju, said the institute’s commitment to the labour summit was driven by the strong sense of responsibility at engendering an inclusive forum for productive engagement of diverse but related stakeholders on labour matters.

*Dr. Niyi Olarewaju, DG MINILS & Justice Babatunde Adejuwo, President of NIC

National culture of dialogue

He said “The summit reflects our concern as an institute, to contribute to the emergence of a national culture of dialogue, while ensuring through this process that labour matters are brought to the front burner of national discourse and policy development.

We expect that today’s activities should generally highlight the potential of partnership between labour stakeholders and government to facilitate the attainment of national and international development targets.”

Inclusive engagement of stakeholders: Presenting a paper on “Building Effective Conflict Management Mechanisms for Sustainable Development in Nigeria”, President of the National Industrial Court, NIC, Justice Babatunde  Adejumo lamented the destructive effects on strike and called for collaborative engagement among all stakeholders in the labour and industrial relations sector.

He stressed the need for stakeholders to build an efficient conflict management mechanism to attain sustainable development, arguing that no meaningful progress could be achieved by a country that lacked the capacity to establish mechanisms for effective management of work related conflicts.

According to him, “Unstable and unfriendly work environment can upset a country economically, politically, socially and culturally, thereby making the pursuit of sustainable development illusory. On the other hand, the existence of congenial and peaceful work environment enhances economic and political well-being of a country and gravitate the country towards the attainment of sustainable development.

This is why we must collectively work towards building virile, vibrant and sustainable workplace conflict management strategies and institutions in Nigeria.”

Tracing causes of conflict between employers and employees to casual and economic factors, the NIC President listed the casual factors to include wages, job security, workplace health and environment, union relations, government policy, company policy and the economic factors which include ineffective communication, breach of contracts, benefits, allowances and other emoluments.

According to him, conflicts may arise from failure of organisations to honour or implement terms of contract or collective bargaining, noting that this could interfere with the efficiency of labour and could be counterproductive.

Adejuwo said no effort should be spared in building effective mechanism for the management of workplace conflicts in the country, pointing out that pro-active dispute preventive principles and techniques, when applied, would reduce the incidence of workplace conflicts.

“The inevitability of workplace conflict makes it compelling that strategies to manage disputes be developed and sustained at the plant or organizational levels. Conflict is not the problem but the real problem is inability or lack of capacity to manage conflict in a way that can result in productive outcome.

It is also noteworthy that the results of conflicts are not predetermined which then means that conscious efforts must be made to channel conflict management to achieve useful outcome.”

Principles of collective bargaining: In his presentation, a lecturer at the Department of Industrial Relations and Public Administration, Lagos State University, LASU, Ojo, Professor Olusegun Matanmi, charged organised labour to partner government and other stakeholders in the employment sector to actualise an ideal pay structure harmonised with the average cost of living.

He said this could be achieved through aggressive but constructive productivity bargaining and sustained productivity consciousness.

Matanmi, who spoke on “Consensus-Building in the Context of Minimum Wage Determination: Issues and Challenges” noted that the International Labour Organisation, ILO, had consistently advocated for a semblance of direct action by member states towards the establishment of wage floors that are legally-binding.

According to him, the formative constitution at inception of the ILO in 1919 had included in its listing of labour conditions for urgent improvements “the provision of an adequate living wage” especially for the purpose of combating social unrest.

On his part, Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State who chaired the summit, stressed the need for stakeholders in industrial relations to adopt the principle of collective bargaining to avert unnecessary industrial actions.

He called on stakeholders in the public service to resolve the unending disagreements with government stressing that strike was not in the interest of the overall economy.

Also speaking, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu underlined the imperative of dialoguing in social discourse adding that the present administration is committed to ensuring that effective conflict management strategy is adopted at both the federal and state levels.

He said the ministry was encouraging the institutionalisation of dialogue and consensus building as minimum procedure in terms of its development strategy. President of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar, also made a presentation.