In this article, Edidiong Ikpoto examines how employers have violated labour laws which resulted in low productivity among the workforce
Joseph Obi, a 33-year-old Mass Communication graduate, works as a content writer for a Lagos-based media firm. His lack of clear-cut working hours and days has caused him to become flustered about having to work seven days a week without any off days to recuperate.
His employment contract was vague and did not explicitly imply he would work every single day of the week, he said. Having worked with the company for just over a year, Joseph believes working without any off day was taking a serious toll on his physical and mental wellbeing and does not encourage productivity.
He said, “I do not think it is advisable for anyone to work seven days a week. That should not be encouraged in any society. Sadly, this has been the case in Nigeria. We work every day of the week. Before I joined the company I am currently working with, my boss never told me I would work seven days a week.”
Joseph, who harped on the need for employers to adhere to the provisions of the law, further lamented the denial of other basic employment benefits such as an annual leave. Staying on the job for him is merely for survival rather than passion.
CNBC research shows the average work week for employees is 47 hours and 40 per cent of workers report working more than 50 hours. This adds 7-10 hours of labour cost to the employer.
“Along with this labour cost, these additional work hours create overwhelmed employees who are not productive. These additional hours are necessary to accomplish the tasks at hand. However, could the tasks get accomplished in 40 hours without unexpected, and unnecessary, labour costs?” it stated.
Unfortunately, overtime is not productive. The CNBC report shows a steady decrease in productivity once an employee hits 4o hours in a week and a sharp decline when an employee hits 50 hours.
The research establishes that an employee would not be more productive by working excessive hours that resulted in unnecessary labour costs.
Data from CEIC, an online platform that provides world macroeconomic data, showed that Nigeria’s labour productivity dropped by 1.14 per cent year-on-year in September 2018, which is the most current data on the subject.
Despite an abundance of legislation protecting the average Nigerian worker, many establishments continue to violate these laws. Infractions range from working days, working hours, overtime, shift scheduling, annual leave, and safety conditions (especially factories).
At different occasions, labour unions had picketed different organistions over poor working conditions and failure to adhere to the country’s labour laws.
The National Minimum Wage Act specifies full-time working hours of forty hours per week. However, the Labour Act does not specify general working hours; rather these are fixed by mutual agreement or collective bargaining within the enterprise or industry.
According to the International Labour Organisation, collective bargaining is a key means through which employers and their organisations and trade unions can establish fair wages and working conditions.
It also provides the basis for sound labour relations. Typical bargaining issues include wages, working time, training, occupational health and safety and equal treatment. These negotiations aim to reach a collective agreement that regulates terms and conditions of employment.
Collective agreements may also address the rights and responsibilities of the parties, ensuring harmonious and productive industries and workplaces. Enhancing the inclusiveness of collective bargaining and collective agreements is a key means of reducing inequality and extending labour protection.
The ILO’s Convention No. 154 specifically states that “all negotiations which take place between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers’ organisations, on the one hand, and one or more workers’ organisations, on the other, should determine working conditions and terms of employment, regulate relations between employers and workers, and also regulate relations between employers or their organisations and a workers’ organisation or workers’ organisations.
While collective bargaining has been mooted by experts as an effective tool to address some of the aforementioned irregularities, little success has been achieved in this regard, because many workers do not know their entitlements under the law.
In an exclusive chat with The PUNCH, the Director-General of Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, Adewale Oyerinde, said for an economy to be productive, the workplaces must be harmonious, and safe, and guarantee growth for all stakeholders, including workers.
He explained that collective bargaining is the process by which working people, through their unions, negotiate contracts with their employers to determine their terms and conditions of employment. He added that it is a right guaranteed by the ILO convention and local legislation.
“Collective bargaining, among other platforms, is the process that enables actors in the workplace to dialogue and agree on the critical issues of welfare, productivity, and many others, which will invariably lead to enterprise sustainability and competitiveness, and then national development,” he noted.
He added that the promotion of industrial democracy through collective bargaining would engender economic growth because of the major role of workers in contributing to the socioeconomic well-being of the country.
Oyerinde’s argument, sound as it is, does not particularly capture the Nigerian situation, where many organisations do not belong to trade unions. This leaves the collective bargaining as a negotiation between employer and employee, in which case the employee is often afraid to demand his rights.
For example, according to Section 13 of the Labour Act, any arrangement which requires a worker to work in excess of the normal hours fixed under subsection (1) of the section shall constitute overtime. The Act also stipulates that overtime wages shall be paid in lieu thereof.
A marketing manager at a cosmetics manufacturing company said that even though her employment conditions clearly stated that the job will be based on a shift schedule, shortage of manpower had led the company to deploy staff on double shifts without paying compensation for the overtime. The source said the employees had resigned to their fate for fear of being ousted for speaking up.
In the same vein, a customer care representative at a Lagos-based fintech, who did not want to be named, told The PUNCH that the primary reason employees allowed themselves to be shortchanged by their employers stemmed from not knowing what the law stipulates, while those who were aware of the provisions of the Labour Act simply do not ask questions to avoid losing their jobs.
Speaking with The PUNCH, the National Assistant Secretary-General of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Chris Onyeka, said that while the apex labour organisation in the country had ensured engagement with the relevant parties to ensure workers’ protection across the board, notable cracks had persisted in this regard because quite a number of organisations still operate without the platform of trade unions, which made it difficult to negotiate workers’ rights.
According to him, many of these infractions have continued to hold sway in the labour space because many workers do not know their rights and are often not proactive enough to lodge these irregularities with the congress to ensure that appropriate action is taken to address these issues.
Onyeka said, “The most significant thing is that we have made the laws and they have to be obeyed. This means that workers have rights, and these rights must be recognised, respected and enforced. It is a tripartite process, meaning that the government has its responsibility, the trade unions have responsibilities, the employers also have responsibility.”
Another challenge that workers have been grappling with is workplace safety, especially in view of the many tragedies that have unfolded due to negligence on the part of some employers.
Last year, PUNCH Metro reported how a factory worker with Spring Feeds Limited, Adekunle Shokunbi, lamented how he was involved in an industrial accident that cost him his right hand while working with the company in the Itamaga area of Ikorodu, Lagos State.
It was gathered that Adekunle with other colleagues was working when he attempted to clear the remnants of the animal feeds in the machine used in mixing the product.
The 22-year-old said his right hand was inside the machine when his colleague, identified only as David, suddenly switched it on and the machine cut off his right hand.
The most disturbing part of Shokunbi’s tragic tale was that this accident could have been avoided if the company had not drafted a worker who was employed as a stockist to operate a machine used in mixing the products.
The company’s MD, Dayo Seriki, refused to pay any form of restitution. He said that the accident was caused by Adekunle who went beyond his duty.
While speaking further on the efforts of the NLC to ensure the safety of workers, especially those who work in factories, Onyeka said the labour congress had begun an audit of firms to ensure a “dignified workplace”.
