Employment Casualisation Challenges and Trade Union Responses: Implication for Decent Work in Nigeria’s Beverage Sector

Abstract

The study examines the challenges of employment casualization and the responsiveness of labour union to employment casualization in Nigeria’s beverage sector. The mixed method research was employed with 846 participants recruited from 5 selected beverage sector organisations in Lagos State, and 10 executives of Food Beverage and Tabacco Senior Staff Association-FOBTOB interviewed. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and NVivo (v.14) software. Unsafe working conditions, abysmal dismissal, job insecurity, denial of work benefits, and the fundamental denial of the human right of casual labourers were among the identified challenges. Casual workers were excluded from the National Collective Bargaining. Industrial strikes and picketing were also not effective in curtailing casualization. Education and training showed positives in terms of equipping the union with appropriate skills, yet no evidence on taming casualization. The study recommends an overhaul and review of Nigeria’s Labour Act of 1974 and Trade Union Act of 2005 as amended for clear interpretation of casual labour as seen in other clime like Ghana’s Labour Act of 2003.