HRM Practices in Nigeria: Employee Relations and Trade Unions

Abstract

Globalisation remains a strong trajectory for organisations to articulate a platform to formulate and introduce appropriate human resources management (HRM) practices to match the global and local context of their business. However, from the perspective of employee engagement, collective bargaining remains a panacea for the continued relevance of trade unions in the workplace. However, it would appear that the ineffectiveness of employees and employers in achieving stable and effective negotiations and thus establishing appropriate terms and conditions of employment has led to the recognition and introduction of institutions and mechanisms to ameliorate appropriate collective bargaining mechanisms. The chapter highlights collective bargaining (a well-established phenomenon) central to trade unionism, which has been subject to various contextual issues. It further demonstrates that the exercise of collective bargaining, on the one hand, is intimately linked with various forms of participation and workers’ rights to organise trade unions but, on the other hand, requires understanding the underlying political, socioeconomic, and cultural paradigm, which ultimately encourages the parties to the collective bargaining process and ultimately the implications for employee relations and trade unions. Finally, it highlights the view that collective bargaining is country-driven, capturing relevant country orientations, history, societal and economic forces, as well as the connectivity of these issues. In other words, the stakeholders in the employment relation settings should end the search for the one right collective bargaining strategy but rather should understand what in the context matters.