THE IMPACT OF TRADE UNION AND INDUSTRIAL RELATION PRACTICE ON ORGANIZATION PRACTICE IN UNION BANK
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Trade union and industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex problems of modern industrial society. With advancement in communication and information technology, the way work is organized and performed in organizations has really improved. Advancement in technology has also changed the relationship that had earlier existed between the employers and the employees. In the modern and competitive organization, there is neither total monopoly of power by employers nor with the employees. However, social divide, which had favoured owner or employer at the expense of the employees, domination and difference in interest and values, are still sources of conflicts in all organizations (Dauda, 2007:26).
It is imperative to note that the central issue of Trade union and industrial relations is how to attain and maintain maximum or optimum levels of productive efficiency and how to share the economic returns. There are basic divergences in the objectives and roles of the parties involved in the production process, that is, the employers and employees. While employers seek to maximize their profits, the employers strike through their trade unions to set equitable share in the profits which their labours have helped to generate. As a result of these differences and conflicting interests which are at play in the industries, problems are bound to arise.
In Nigeria, every worker has a right to form and belong to any trade union of his choice. This is because this right is guaranteed to every Nigerian by virtue of section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 which provides that “Every person shall be entitled to assemble freely and associate with other persons and in particular he may form or belong to any political party or trade union or any other association for the protection of his interest”.
This provision is one of the fundamental human rights provisions in the constitution which can only be amended by special legislative processes to ensure that no person or party in power can easily take away these rights by legislation.
Although, trade unionism in Nigeria predates independence, it started to grow in the period when the various governments in the country realized that combination of workers was not necessarily conspiratorial but could be a vehicle for social benefits. Also, the enactment of social legislation to foster and promote such organizations has become an important part of labour policy and administration. In Nigeria, the need to introduce this special legislation to govern the organization of persons engaged in industry for the purpose of collective relations was first pointed out by Lord Missfield, a secretary of state for the colonies. In his dispatch of September 17, 1930, addressed also to other colonial governors, he expressed the view that social and industrial progress in colonial territories had become such that union were to be expected as a national and legitimate development. He suggested the passing of simple trade union legislations which would provide the basis for such development on the lines of the United Kingdom Union Act of 1871. So, when the first trade union was born in 1912, it enjoyed, like others after it, the protection of the U.K Trade Union Act of 1871.
Therefore, the Trade Union Act of 1871 constitutes the cradle of Nigeria Trade Union
Laws (Udabah& George, 2002)
As workers desire recognition, satisfaction, fair wages and salaries, security of jobs, redress of wrongs and good working conditions in like manner, the employers seek to secure labour at the price that would allow a reasonable margin for investment and further expect an uninterrupted production and distribution of goods and supply of services which is planned on a calculated cost and risk, (Audi, 1993:73). Government on its own part desires a well regulated relationship between and among the industrial relation actors for a virile economy. Consumers do also expect from the manufacturers not only a fair price of goods and services, but also the quality of such goods or services (as the case may be). The processes that have been used particularly in Western developed counties, for the attainment of these goals and aspirations of all the parties involved are through collective bargaining. In Nigeria, like in most developing world, if collective bargaining fails, due to the inability of the actors in reaching consensus, other statutory methods followed that is mediation, conciliation and so on. Despite these methods been adopted, most often the employer(s) and the workers still find themselves in sharp disagreement; not only on the aforementioned interests, but also on how they (actors) interpret the meaning of what constitutes the collective bargaining and on how it should be applied. Such frictions or disagreements give rise to trade disputes, namely, any dispute between employers and workers or between workers and workers, which is connected with the employment or non-employment, or the terms of employment and physical conditions of work of any person.
