Content uploaded by Emeka Okafor
Author content
All content in this area was uploaded by Emeka Okafor on Apr 11, 2016
Content may be subject to copyright.
A preview of the PDF is not available
Nonstandard Employment Relations and Implications for Decent Work Deficits in Nigeria
Abstract
Nonstandard employment relations have become very common in most work Organisations in Nigeria. However, the implications of this form of employment relations as regards the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) decent work agenda are rarely investigated by the industrial and work sociologists. Conceptualizing nonstandard work within the context of casual, contract and outsourced work, the paper contends that this form of employment relations has been exacerbated by the growing incidence of youth unemployment in Nigeria. Using neoliberalism as a theoretical framework, the paper further contended that most work organisations in Nigeria are using this mode of employment to reduce labour cost so as to increase profit in line with the rule of free market economy at the expense of the improvised workers in violation of extant labour law. The paper argues that with this mode of employment relations, there are serious infractions and deficits of decent work in Nigeria.
... However, an area that has received little attention is how the promotion of decent work may be localised to improve local welfare. Where attempts have been made, the reality of implementing the principles of decent work as emphasised by SDG 8 2 has been questioned; for some, especially those in African countries, decent work can only be a journey and never a destination (Okafor 2012). Others also argue that LGs suffer mammoth fiscal, technical and leadership challenges (Okafor et al. 2015), making them ill-suited to lead implementation. ...
... Since the inception of the term "decent work" in the late 1990s, the concept has been subject to scrutiny (Okafor 2012;Sehnbruch et al. 2015). The main bone of contention has been whether or not the various components of the concept can be translated into realworld policies and practices, especially in informal contexts where employers themselves may be struggling to survive. ...
... The understanding of decent work as expressed in the EM and AEED of Ghana was consistent with that of several studies (Abebrese 2014;Frey and MacNaughton 2016;Ghai 2003;ILO, 2013ILO, , 2019Oya 2015). In some respects, the findings differ from those of other studies (Mbiba and Ndubiwa 2006;Okafor 2012;Sehnbruch et al. 2015). ...
Since the adoption of Local Agenda 21, local governments have been enjoined to become active players in major development agendas, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Despite the proliferation of literature on localisation strategies adopted by sub-national governments in pursuance of the 17 SDGs, little is known about localised efforts to fulfil SDG 8: “Promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth, employment and decent work for all”, particularly in Africa. Through a qualitative case study of the Ghana Decent Work Pilot Project, this paper examines how two local districts adapted and implemented the principles of decent work in a rural setting to improve the well-being of informal workers. The findings reveal that decent work was conceptualised by local authorities to mean the achievement of four main goals: the stimulation of local employment, extension of social security to informal entrepreneurs, adoption of best business practices and enhancement of entrepreneurs’ participation in local assembly decision-making. To enhance the achievement of these goals, the local authorities launched four main interventions in a gender- and poverty-sensitive manner. These interventions include institutional embedding of the project, capacity building for entrepreneurs, the unionisation of entrepreneurs and the introduction of local health and financing schemes. The study concludes with policy recommendations that, if adopted, would help to upscale and out-scale local efforts to promote decent work across Africa.
... Notwithstanding the essential roles played by the manufacturing sector in development and growth process, scholars have recognized that the sector is bedeviled by many problems. Some of the problems confronting the sector are: negligence and maladministration on the part of successive military and civilian government, corruptions, indiscriminate policy reversals, inadequate funding, high cost of borrowing from financial institutions, poor management, lack of basic infrastructure and unguided competition from foreign manufacturing firms (Okafor, 2012). To tackle these problems, the Federal Republic of Nigeria has prioritized the manufacturing sector by directing commercial banks, thorough the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), to devote a certain percentage of their loanable fund to the sector at a much lower rate since industrialization has been recognized as the propelling force acting as the pivot for the production of commodities and services, employment generation and sustainable national income both in developing and developed economies, thus, borrowing for investment purposes are highly discouraged when lending rate is high and vice versa. ...
This study examines the impact of interest
rate spread and exchange rate volatility on
manufacturing output in Nigeria between the
periods of 1981-2020. Secondary data were
collected from the CBN statistical bulletin,
2020 and World Bank. In the regression
model estimated, the dependent variable was
manufacturing output (MQ) while the
explanatory variables used include exchange
rate (EXCHT), interest rate spread (IRS),
inflation (INF), foreign direct investment
(FDI), credit to private sector (CPS) and
government capital expenditure (GCAP). In
order to reduce the problem of stationarity
and structural breaks associated with the
time series data, the model was logged. The
work adopted the Ordinary Least Squares
(OLS) method of estimation and employed
Newey-West-HAC to correct
heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation
problems intrinsically. Unit root test was
carried out to check if the variables were
stationary and the ADF test showed that
there exists a cointegrating or long run
relationship between the dependent and
explanatory variables. Ramsey RESET tests
was also carried out. The result revealed
that, despite being significant, a negative
relationship exists between foreign direct
investment and manufacturing output.
Consequently, the work recommends that
government should adopt policies that
prevents crowding out effect in the economy
as well as encourage the consumption of
locally made products. Also, the government
must embark on a massive overhaul of our
morbid physical infrastructure (power, road,
rail and ports) if we are to achieve a
sustainable economy and a virile
manufacturing sector. The findings also show
that government capital expenditure is
significant but negatively related to capital
formation. In view of this, the study
recommends that government should adopt
effective measures, policies and programs
that foster accountability and transparency
in the method of spending public funds in
Nigeria.
... Further, in recent decades, there has been a dramatic increase in nonstandard jobs due to such factors as massive unemployment, globalization, the shift from the manufacturing sector to the service sector, and the spread of information technology (Okafor, 2012). These changes have created a new economy that demands flexibility in the workplace and as a result, causes a decline in standard employment relations and a dramatic increase in precarious work (Kalleberg, 2000;Adewumi, 2008). ...
In recent time, one of the most challenging and highly prevailing issues in the global labour market has been the threat of labour casualization. Its widespread has not spared any society on the globe. Consequently, Nigeria has witnessed a phenomenal rise in the practice of labour casualization with its prevalence permeating all the sectors of the economy. Given the above, the study examined the influence of labour casualization on employee performance in government establishments in Nigeria. The study is a theoretical discourse so it adopts a qualitative research method and depends on secondary data sources such as journal articles, government publications, books, and web-based studies on labour casualization. The study was influenced by the Social Systems Theory founded by Talcott Parsons which best analyses system models. The findings reveal a peculiar workforce that is characterized by a deplorable level of casualization in public establishments with a generally low level of performance. The paper concludes that one of the impediments to high-performance levels in government establishments in Nigeria is casual employment. The paper, therefore, recommends that the Nigerian government at all levels should prioritize efforts towards the creation of decent employment opportunities for the populace. This can be done through the establishment of secondary sector and agro-allied industries which can enhance the creation of job opportunities.
... Though the capitalist environment focuses on profit maximization, the employers tend to minimize cost and maximize profits. In addition, human labor is considered as the main cost of production that is kept at low rate to maximize profit (Okafor 2010). In the case of Nigeria, most organizations use the system of neoliberalism in which individuals are employed at a reduced labor cost in order to increase profit in accordance to the free-market economy which violates the labor law. ...
... The International Labour Organization defines social protection as: [...] the set of public measures that a society provides for its members to protect them against economic and social distress that would be caused by the absence or a substantial reduction of income from work as a result of various contingencies (sickness, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, invalidity, old age, and death of the breadwinner); the provision of health care; and, the provision of benefits for families with children (Bonilla, Garcia & Gruat, 2003, p. 13). This objective aims at promoting both inclusion and productivity, by ensuring that women and men enjoy working conditions that are safe, allowing for adequate free time and rest, taking into cognizance family and social values, providing for adequate compensation in case of lost or reduced income and permitting access to adequate health care (Okafor, 2012). From the point of view of Barrientos (2007), the social protection implication apparently relates to lack of access that many flexible and informal workers have on the contract of employment and legal employment benefits. ...
This is the eighth book by LAPEEX/PSOT – Research, Teaching and
Extension Laboratory: People, Subjectivity, Organizations and Work. The
overall aim is to give visibility to science by sharing reliable scientific knowledge regardless of its origin. This laboratory articulates the activities of the
extension project Coffe with HR: promoting actions to improve the Quality
of Life at Work. The research group involved in this project is named “Management with people and subjectivity in the Oil and Gas”. As editors, we
joined efforts and our international partners, namely the Center for Research
in Education and Psychology of the University of Évora (CIEP-UE) and the
Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive and Behavioral Intervention (CINEICC) of the University of Coimbra.
This book marks our international experience approaching a very relevant
topic that is urgent and highly important nowadays: decent work. Since this
book was funded by the MPT – Public Ministry of Labor in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, it was possible to make it freely available worldwide. We intended
to meet a double mission of research and extension of our research centers.
Therefore, we hope it can be helpful to researchers and practitioners from
different institutions and/or public and private companies to help them reflect
on their policies and practices in favor of decent work, the eighth sustainable
development goal of the United Unions 2030 Agenda.
Each country has its unique challenges. However, interdependence and
responsibility in promoting decent work is a shared responsibility of everyone. Promoting decent work means providing a better quality of life and
social peace for everyone through social emancipation and reducing social
inequalities worldwide.
The practice of non-standard work remains a significant aspect of Nigerian labor relations. Despite existing laws designed to protect casual and temporary employees and promote harmonious industrial relations, the casualization of workers continues unabated, with far-reaching implications for industrial relations and the corporate sector. This paper explores the inability of casual or temporary workers to recognize and assert their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Although Nigeria is a signatory to International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions that advocate international best practices for the protection of casual employees, the enforcement of these standards remains weak. The paper argues that the government's lack of interest in defining and enforcing the terms and conditions governing casual employment further exacerbates the issue. This study employs desk research, reviewing existing and proposed legislation as well as previous research findings. It reveals that Nigerian labor laws do not adequately address the existence or regulation of casual workers. To address this gap, the paper recommends strategies for regulating casual employment in Nigeria, drawing lessons from the European Union, Ghana, and China's labor practices. These recommendations aim to disrupt the status quo and establish labor practices that promote, protect, and enforce the rights of casual and temporary employees in Nigeria, while fostering industrial harmony in line with global trends and best practices.
This study investigates the impact and consequences of youth unemployment in Ndola City, Zambia, using structured and semi-structured questionnaires to gather quantitative and qualitative data. The main objective is to examine the effects of youth unemployment. Specific objectives included identifying major causes of youth unemployment, assessing its impacts, understanding survival strategies of unemployed youths, and determining government programs that could mitigate unemployment. Data was collected from 70 purposefully selected youths and analyzed using SPSS, Microsoft Word, and Excel. The study recognizes that solutions to youth unemployment require identifying its root causes, thus, it surveyed unemployed youths who provided critical primary data. Findings indicated that economic recession, lack of job market exposure, absence of industries, skill deficiencies, low educational attainment, corruption, nepotism, and low entrepreneurship levels were major factors contributing to youth unemployment in Ndola City. These issues result in criminal activities, prostitution, excessive alcohol consumption, and poverty due to lack of income. To address youth unemployment, the study recommended prioritizing local youths in community projects such as road and drainage construction, building more affordable schools, and providing high-quality education. It emphasized that the government should create jobs and that stakeholders should address this issue before it becomes uncontrollable. Additionally, encouraging youth involvement in agriculture, given Ndola's agricultural potential, was suggested as a viable solution. The study underscores the long-lasting financial, social, and psychological effects of unemployment, exacerbated by global economic crises. The International Labour Organization estimates rising youth unemployment rates globally, with Zambia experiencing a 60% youth unemployment rate, among the highest in Sub-Saharan Africa. The youth population, comprising 65% of Zambia's workforce, faces unemployment rates significantly higher than adults. This study emphasizes that addressing the causes of youth unemployment is crucial for finding effective solutions and improving the livelihoods of Ndola's youth.
Globally, the use of temporary workers is assuming an alarming proportion and is cutting across industries from manufacturing to services, construction workers, registered nurses, bankers, and information technology experts. Industries using temporary workers have surged considerably due to increased global competition and the imperative management strategy to reduce business costs to stay competitive in a turbulent business environment. The study examined the effects of short-term employment on an organization. The researchers employed the convergent parallel mixed method approach in an attempt to describe, explain, and interpret the challenges of short-term employment contracts in Ghana. This involved the use of both qualitative and quantitative tools with a study population drawn from three organizations in Accra and having a sample size of 14 respondents for the quantitative and 7 participants for the qualitative study. Though exploratory, certain patterns that relate to challenges of short-term employment emerged from the analysis that centered on emotional well-being, job opportunities, financial security, job security, and a sense of belonging. These factors include insufficient socialization, the incidence of injustice arising out of summary dismissals, marginalization from decision-making, prospects for permanent work, lower wages and tenure, lower tolerance for inequity, low levels of commitment, and curbed motivation. It is plausible that chaotic Human Resource Practices are underway with this phenomenon of Short-Term Employees in Corporate Ghana.
The paper addresses informalization processes driven by layoffs, casualization, and outsourcing and their implications for workers' agency. The empirical focus is on the metal engineering, glass, and paper industries in the East Rand, South Africa's industrial heartland. The author argues that growing job precariousness, the expansion of casual work, the increasing stratification of the labor market, and steadily high unemployment rates represent a hollowing out of an earlier promise of liberation politics, which posited wage labor as the vehicle of social citizenship—i.e. decent living conditions, protected jobs, and social provisions—in a democratic South Africa. Present realities rather suggest an erosion of the socially integrative role of waged employment. It also questions the common binary opposition between "formal" and "informal" sectors that associates the former with inclusion and the latter with marginality. Furthermore, in the author's view the reconfiguration of the meanings of waged work has eroded the socially emancipative role of organized labor. The possibilities and prospects for collective organizing on the basis of wage labor identities are limited to the extent that casualization and informalization undermine workplace-based organizations. It is, therefore, important to consider forms of social emancipation that transcend an exclusive focus on waged employment. The disarticulation of the working class, in fact, is not merely weakening work-based identities, but also creates new spaces for social agency and contestation. The paper stresses that focusing on the strategies and discourse of ordinary workers is more politically productive than mainstream definitions of informality that emphasize capitalist domination or state rationality. Rather than simply representing disempowerment and vulnerability, informality also creates conditions for political possibility.
The influx of Asian firms into Nigeria over the last one decade has exacerbated the use of casual workers in the production process. Little or no attempt has been made by scholars to understand the plights of this category of workers and to give them a voice. This study examined the working conditions of casual workers in three Asian firms in Lagos. The study utilized both neo-liberalism and Social Action Theory as theoretical framework. The sample was made up of 195 casual workers, selected through the triangulation of simple and purposive sampling techniques. Quantitative and qualitative data for the study were collected through the use of questionnaires and in-dept oral interviews. The result showed that most casuals described their working conditions as poor and their work as indecent. Also, most casuals rated their job satisfaction and work commitment as low, respectively. The paper argues that the prevalent use of casuals in Nigerian work organizations is predicated upon the general unemployment and poverty ions created by the weak economy. Under this precarious situation, workers no longer perceive work as a natural phenomenon to be enjoyed, but a compulsion needed to survive.
The commodification of labour by mainstrearn economics and management has historically led to the alienation of labour and dehumanization of work. This trend has become increasingly worsened by the globalization of neoliberalism which, among others, has become characterized by the informalization of the labour market, particularly in the ‘secondary’ segment as a dominant strategy for capital accumulation. This has largely undermined the hitherto, arguably, formal framework for industrial democracy. What has been underemphasized or deliberately ignored in the new paradigm is the social dimension of the labour market paradigm – the social inequalities engendered by the uncritical deregulation of the labour market and its consequences for jobless growth and the sustainability of society – even in its liberal conception. This paper, therefore, attempts to fill this lacuna, by a critical re-conception and analysis of the labour market to embrace ‘society’- official regulation based on social contract that embraces social inclusiveness, social protection and flexicurity, voice representation and social dialogue, social partnership and social responsibility as welt as a decent work orientation to the labour market. Particularly emphasized is the importance of the above for African society, where social structural peculiarities and underdevelopment require a more creative and critical engagement with neo-liberalism. Secondary data from standardized sources including thc International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDZ) are used to demonstrate the nature of social exclusion generated by the dominant labour market practice and the need for the stated alternative.
Globalisation has engulfed the whole world. In some places it has enriched businesses and the quality of life while in others it has wrecked havoc. Even within nations the benefits have not been fairly distributed. In an attempt to maximize profit and keep up with competition some work organisations have resorted to unethical business practices like casualisation of workers thereby hurting workers interest and violating some fundamental labour laws. Workers in developing economies have been worst hit. Against this background the paper argues that the practice of casualisation and all kinds of unfair labour practices to keep up with competition and ensure profit maximization in oil and gas sector in Nigeria is an obstruction of sound business ethics on one hand, and on the other, to recourse to the era brutish Scientific Management. Further the paper argued that casualisation is an unethical business practices that violate the right of workers to decent job and freedom of association. The paper therefore concludes that casualisation and other unfair labour practices are meant to promote capitalists quest for greater productivity and profit maximization in line with the terms and dictates of scientific management postulations to the detriments of workers (casual) while ignoring the social needs of workers to associate and unionise.
Many observers are concerned that the steady increase in atypical forms of employment that dispense with contracts normally concluded under ordinary law may threaten the principles that have governed labour relations up to now and give rise to a proliferation of unregulated employment situations that will undermine the traditional system. Of equal concern is the fragile, provisional and precarious nature of atypical forms of employment, with all that this implies for the worker. The author analyses the changes taking place in the traditional model, their causes, the controversies they have created, and their repercussions on individual and collective labour relations and on social security. -Author
With the publication of his best-selling books "Competitive Strategy (1980) and "Competitive Advantage (1985), Michael E. Porter of the Harvard Business School established himself as the world's leading authority on competitive advantage. Now, at a time when economic performance rather than military might will be the index of national strength, Porter builds on the seminal ideas of his earlier works to explore what makes a nation's firms and industries competitive in global markets and propels a whole nation's economy. In so doing, he presents a brilliant new paradigm which, in addition to its practical applications, may well supplant the 200-year-old concept of "comparative advantage" in economic analysis of international competitiveness. To write this important new work, Porter and his associates conducted in-country research in ten leading nations, closely studying the patterns of industry success as well as the company strategies and national policies that achieved it. The nations are Britain, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States. The three leading industrial powers are included, as well as other nations intentionally varied in size, government policy toward industry, social philosophy, and geography. Porter's research identifies the fundamental determinants of national competitive advantage in an industry, and how they work together as a system. He explains the important phenomenon of "clustering," in which related groups of successful firms and industries emerge in one nation to gain leading positions in the world market. Among the over 100 industries examined are the German chemical and printing industries, Swisstextile equipment and pharmaceuticals, Swedish mining equipment and truck manufacturing, Italian fabric and home appliances, and American computer software and movies. Building on his theory of national advantage in industries and clusters, Porter identifies the stages of competitive development through which entire national economies advance and decline. Porter's finding are rich in implications for both firms and governments. He describes how a company can tap and extend its nation's advantages in international competition. He provides a blueprint for government policy to enhance national competitive advantage and also outlines the agendas in the years ahead for the nations studied. This is a work which will become the standard for all further discussions of global competition and the sources of the new wealth of nations.
The prevalence of nonstandard jobs is a matter of concern if, as many assume, such jobs are bad. We examine the relationship between nonstandard employment (on-call work and day labor, temporary-help agency employment, employment with contract companies, independent contracting, other self-employment, and part-time employment in "conventional" jobs) and exposure to "bad" job characteristics, using data from the 1995 Current Population Survey. Of workers age 18 and over, 31 percent are in some type of nonstandard employment. To assess the link between type of employment and bad jobs, we conceptualize "bad jobs" as those with low pay and without access to health insurance and pension benefits. About one in seven jobs in the United States is bad on these three dimensions. Nonstandard employment strongly increases workers' exposure to bad job characteristics, net of controls for workers' personal characteristics, family status, occupation, and industry.