CHAPTER ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In the formation of the nation industrial policy the federal government was influenced by the country’s social and economic conditions and the standard set by the international labour organization (ILO) and Nigeria is a member.
In Nigeria trade union service and industrial relations department under the federal ministry of labour and productivity are primary responsible for the promotion and maintenance of industrial peace and harmony in all the trade disputes which (ie. Employers and employee or union members) have failed to settle through internal machinery designed to reach amicable settlement of disputes.
Despite the existence of these two departments industrial crises involving a total number of 1,327 trade disputes were handled with the past seven-year resulting in 813 strikes and lockout. Only 821 of the disputes were settle through intervention and conciliation out of 1,327 while 307 were referred to industrial Arbitration panel (IAP) and national industrial court settled 205 of such disputes.
With these industrial relation could be defined as the network social relationship between the employees and their employers and their associations and government and their numerous agencies in their attempts to replete terms and condition of employment and perform other functions that directly or indirectly concern the initiation and sustenance of peaceful and purposeful labour management relations which involve applying machinery dealing with complaints grievance and disputes in an organization.
Arnistrony E (1980) sees industrial relations as the inter-twining activities of the workers management and government for better working conditions
Meanwhile the upsurge in strike and industrial tension could be blamed on the suspicious issue between employers and workers as well as intra-union crisis. In a bid to maximize their standard of living which often eroded by inflation working demand higher pay and better working condition of service while employer resist such requests because they fear it might reduce their profits. This refusal may result to strike or industrial conflict.
In the public sector government resisted it because of unavailability of funds and the likely economic consequences