MANAGING INDUSTRIAL DISPUTES IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS IN ENUGU STATE

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY: In the formation of the nation industrial policy the federal government was influenced by the country’s social and economic conditions and the standard set by the international labour organization   (ILO) and Nigeria is a member.

In Nigeria trade union service and industrial relations department under the federal ministry of labour and productivity are primary responsible for the promotion and maintenance of industrial peace and harmony in all the trade disputes which (ie. Employers and employee or union members) have failed to settle through internal machinery designed to reach amicable settlement of disputes.

Despite the existence of these two departments industrial crises involving a total number of 1,327 trade disputes were handled with the past seven-year resulting in 813 strikes and lockout. Only 821 of the disputes were settle through intervention and conciliation out of 1,327 while 307 were referred to industrial Arbitration panel (IAP) and national industrial court settled 205 of such disputes.

With these industrial relation could be defined as the network social relationship between the employees and their employers and their associations and government and their numerous agencies in their attempts to    replete terms and condition of employment and perform other functions that directly or indirectly concern the initiation and   sustenance of peaceful and purposeful labour management relations which involve applying machinery dealing with complaints grievance and disputes in an organization.

Arnistrony E (1980) sees industrial relations as the inter-twining activities of the workers management and government for better working conditions

Meanwhile the upsurge in strike and industrial tension could be blamed on the suspicious issue between employers and workers as well as intra-union crisis.  In a bid to maximize their standard of living which often eroded by inflation working demand higher pay and better working condition of service while employer resist such requests because they fear it might reduce their profits. This refusal may result to strike or industrial conflict.

In the public sector government resisted it because of unavailability of funds and the likely economic consequences

The causes of these inter or intra union disputes may be traced to communication gap between the official and member alleged misappropriation of funds or embezzlement of union funds arbitrary dismissal of national officers by the union refusal to call national delegates conference as and when due.

In recent years trade disputes especially those of intra and inert union cases have resulted in litigations in the law court. Some disputes had led to the institutions of more than 30 court cases involving different trade union. It has become the order of the day among trade union leaders to take the intra and inter union disputes to civil courts rather than use settlement machinery provided fro them under the trade disputes act of 1976 (Amendment decree)

The Nigeria labour compress (NLC) is the umbrella organizations for all the trade union in the country was created by the trade union decree of 1978 by which the government organized the country’s labour force into 42 trade union. The decree set out how the law will be how to appoint the officers who is qualified for membership and requirement that each union much file an annual statement of account with the registrar of trade unions in the federal ministry of labour and productivity.  The industrial relations decree of 1976 sets out the details of low disputes between the employer and employees union are to be settled. Employers and employees union are required to attempt internal settlement through joint consultation and collective bargaining.