Workers government wage relations and the unresolved issue of income inequality and labor strikes in Nigeria: Suggestion for the way forward

Abstract

Generally speaking, employees in all kinds of work organizations (private or public) exchange work for rewards, which take many forms (that is, material and non-material rewards). However, one of the most important of such rewards and invariably the most obvious is the money paid to workers either as salaries, wages or monitored fringe benefits. The importance of this group of reward lies in the fact that it constitutes the regime of benefit which impacts most greatly on the employees’ motivation to work and on their propensity to cooperate with the management thereby creating a stable industrial relations environment. Its management thus becomes an important issue in all manners of industrial relations system. In Nigeria, the administration of industrial compensation is always associated with a number of industrial relations related problems, the most important which are income inequality and industrial conflicts in form of labor strikes. This paper suggests some ways forward which include: the adoption of job-evaluation system in the fixing of salaries and wages; adoption of the principles of Human Resource Management (HRM) in the management of workers; and introduction of welfare schemes for workers to reduce income inequality. Key words:Material and non-material rewards, wages.