Skip to main content

THE TRADE UNION: THE WORKERS ENEMY

 We wish to make a reminder because of the current Industrial Relations situation in my country,  Nigeria. 

We want to show through two examples that the Trade Union is the enemy of workers. 


Firstly,  We carried out a redundancy exercise in one company I worked after six weeks,  the Trade Union declared a trade dispute against us. The complaints were: 

1. We did not inform the Union as per the law. 

2. We paid one month's salary in lieu of notice instead of two months. 

In truth,  the Union was correct while the company was wrong. 

During the conciliation meeting in the Federal Ministry of Labour,  after about two hours of meaningless discussion,  I offered a solution. Management will reinstate all affected staff provided they paid back the redundancy benefits they collected. The General Secretary of the Union rejected the offer. When the Director, advised that the Union refund the benefits back to Management and treat such amounts as loans,  the Union rejected the advice stating that the Union does not give loans to its members and informed the meeting that they were going for Arbitration. 


Secondly, In another company I worked,  I concluded the negotiation of a Procedural Agreement that has dragged for more than five years within six months. The only point of disagreement was the annual salary increment negotiation. Management said annual salary increments shall be based on the company's Performance Management System. 

The Senior Staff Association declared a trade dispute. When the SSA was advised by the Conciliator to return to the company to sign the agreement,  they opted for arbitration. 


The interesting thing about these two trades disputes was that I dealt with the General Secretaries of both the Union and the SSA. 

My conclusion is that the Union is the number one enemy of the workers. 


Next week,  we shall start to share the handling of public-sector union strikes. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

EMPLOYEE STEALING 7

 I worked in this particular company that pays terribly disproportionate Junior staff to Managerial salaries. My monthly salary was almost twice the salary of the five junior staff that worked with me. The above great disparity notwithstanding, one of the Clerk's secondary home was a beer parlour where he spent freely. A second junior staff on supervisory grade change his car twice in three years, while I the manager could not afford a single tyre of a car. These two staff, while one was in charge of purchasing, the second was in charge of processing the sales of scraps in the company.

WICKED MANAGEMENTS AND CALLOUS TRADE UNIONS 5

 As we conclude this Content on Wicked Managements and Callous Trade Unions, we shall share with you what should be done by both Management and Trade Union in protecting workers from unfair labour Practices. Last week, we identified some of the National Economic Challenges and the contributions of both Management and Trade Union to unfair labour Practices. The way out of Unfair Labour Practices falls on both the Management and the Trade Union. They are:- - Management and Trade Union must commit to adhering to the Codified Rules of Engagement. - Management shall not go out of the labour policies and procedures of the organisation. - There shall be no secrets in the management workers affairs. - Salaries, allowances and pensions must be paid as at when due (30 days cycle). - Workers shall be given fair hearing. - The Trade Union must be carried along on all issues of discipline and job loses. From the above, what comes out like we said previously, the Trade Unions unfair labour Pract...

HR MISTAKES BY YOURS TRULY 8

 I have a first degree in Sociology and Anthropology from the best university then in that discipline in Nigeria, the University of Benin, Benin City. During my undergraduate days, I decided not to earn naira on graduation, so when my course mates were rushing to major in Organizational Behaviour, I opted for Medical Sociology. I equally decided to go on to obtain a Masters Degree in Epidemiology so as to ensure that I work with either WHO or UNICEF where I would be paid in dollars. However, my university of choice was then being shut every other three months. This was against another decision of yours truly that I shall not spend more than 12 months for the masters program. At this point, I changed my mind to study Industrial Relations and Personnel Management at the best University then in that discipline in Nigeria, the University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos. This major shift brought yours truly into a profession that it's major tenants contradict my major attitudes to life. Some of ...