ADR and Workplace Conflict - A Podcast Analysis Nigeria, Britain and the US

Abstract

The decline of union representation and the introduction of legal incentives for workers to resolve individual employment disputes without resorting to the courts has unequivocally made Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) increasingly prominent in the British industrial relations landscape. The conciliation service offered by the Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) has been the most important sign and driver of this change. Although ADR has been encouraged in Western jurisdictions, particularly in the United Kingdom (UK) and in the United States (US), as a means to reduce time and litigation costs in relation to employment tribunal claims, the scarcity of scholarly publications, particularly on the benefits of utilising mediation or conciliation to settle workplace disputes is frankly unacceptable. On the other hand, Nigerian workers or employees are not encouraged or have little or no awareness of resolving workplace disputes or conflicts via ADR due to a lack of sensitisation in most organisations and a dearth of scholarly research on ADR to settle conflicts or workplace disputes in Nigeria, particularly with Mediation and Conciliation. This lack of awareness is a grave oversight compared to the UK. While British workers are encouraged to lodge their disputes with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Services (ACAS) before proceeding to an employment tribunal claim, Nigerian counterparts settle via the National Industrial Court (NIC) ADR, which is not always adequate. However, some sectors in Nigeria, like the Trade Unions, are quite complex, particularly disputes emanating from the Maritime Industry, which are hardly settled via ADR, unlike their UK counterparts. Hence, the jurisdictions mentioned above have different patterns and modus operandi for resolving workplace conflicts or disputes, and these will be meticulously examined in this paper. Additionally, the paper scrutinises the reason why the minister of labour and employment has so much power accorded or bequest to him to apprehend and refer a disputed award to the National Industrial Court (NIC) ADR. The paper employs a comparative and, for the first time, podcast analysis of workplace disputes in Nigeria and Britain, focusing on the different patterns of settling Workplace Conflicts such as discrimination, bullying and harassment. The paper concludes by unequivocally highlighting the benefits of mediation and its relevance to various entities involved in Workplace conflicts or disputes. Keywords: Alternative Dispute Resolution, Workplace Conflict, Access to Labour Justice, Employment Relations, Human Resource Management, Podcast, Awareness.