**7. Industrial harmony and political stability: Any nexus?**

To be able to provide a rational and an objective response to this question, it is necessary to aggregate the elements that constitute industrial harmony and political stability by drawing from the insights on the terms as highlighted in the foregoing. As indicated earlier in this study, since the relationship between the government and the labour organisation are structurally antithetical in terms of objectives and functions it is therefore unavoidable that there will always be frictions from time to time as both sides seek to achieve their aims and objectives. But for the sake of peace and stability, it is expected that both sides will continue to engage and synergise to create and advance industrial harmony, a sine qua non to stability, to ultimately provide a conducive environment for governance. Ensuring peace and stability will facilitate the discharge of the world-wide constitutional responsibility to governments in terms of provision of security and welfare for the citizens.

Consequently, the following themes can be identified and posited:


This study is inclined to observe that industrial disputes, if poorly managed or not addressed, will ultimately lead to protests, demonstrations and strikes. Workers, worldwide have always resorted to strike actions when the sides to disputes fail to reach mutual agreement. In the case of the public sector crisis, where the Nigerian industrial relations system today to be replete with cases of violations of negotiated agreements as a result of executive lawlessness, the resort to strike actions by workers, usually organised and called by the organised (central) labour organisation seems to have been institutionalised.

*Public Sector Crisis Management*

**labour**

engendering an atmosphere of instability.

by which labour unions cause disruptions in the economy of a country thereby

**6. Mechanisms for resolving public sector crisis by government and** 

substantive and procedural matters within the employment relationship.

occasioned security nightmares all over the country.

In the Nigerian public sector, crisis emanating from industrial disputes of serious magnitude, has been subjected to the collective bargaining process. For example, crisis triggered by national strikes that had the tendency to constitute security threats to the government, has had to be resolved through a collective bargaining process. The challenge in this is that the place and role of the state, in most cases, tend to vitiate the effectiveness of this process. This aligns with the view of Adebisi [14], who lamented the highhandedness of the Nigerian government in respect of labour matter for making a nonsense of these mechanisms or procedures for dispute settlement. More often than not, the Nigerian government fails to honour its own agreement with labour, thereby setting poor standards for employers in the private sector. Violations of agreements reached through collective bargaining process have occurred more during the military regime(s) in Nigeria. It is on record, and clearly too, that the military has violated more agreement reached out of collective bargaining than constitutional democracy in Nigeria or the world over. In this instance, Adebisi [14] has cited the failure or reluctance of government to honour a number of agreements with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, and the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC. The current federal government of Nigeria is in the midst of reaching agreement with the organised labour in respect of minimum wage over which there had been disruptive strike actions which had

The interesting thing about the adoption of the collective bargaining process as a mechanism for resolving labour issues in Nigeria appears to be the only means possible hitherto. This is not to prejudice the possibility of either improving on the process for more effective operation or exploring additional measures that will

At this point, and by way of digression, it is necessary to mention that there are conflict resolution mechanisms peculiar to the private sector. This applies to small businesses, where success often depends or rests on the cohesion of a few people, the loss of trust and productivity can be a challenge to the continued existence and growth of the business. For such businesses, it will be helpful to rely on the prescriptions of Dontigney [1] who had identified the following conflict management

Conflict resolution mechanisms may differ from organisation to organisation but there are established strategies that have been in use. Whether in private or public sector, the following can be said to be the evolving methods of conflict resolution. These strategies include mediation, conciliation and arbitration. These are referred to as alternate disputes resolution (ADR) mechanisms deployed by disputants, and who are willing to abide by settlement terms. Experience has shown that disputing parties use these ADR methods because they are relatively expeditious, private, and generally much less expensive than resorting to the courts. The use of any of these methods involves some form of bargaining, commonly referred to as collective bargaining (CB). As a concept, Rose [4] reports that the term was originated by Webb and Webb to describe the process of agreeing terms and conditions of employment when the representatives of employers, and that of the employees. Rose [4] explains that CB could also be defined as a process whereby representatives of employers and employees jointly determine and regulate decisions pertaining to both

**142**

complement the process.
