Emerging actors in employment relations: Evidence of multipartism between the Nigerian Federal Government and the Academic Staff Union of Universities

Abstract

The current trends in employment relations as they relate to decentralisation of production, outsourcing of workers to third parties, the emerging range of new employment arrangements such as agency work, contract or part-time work, casualisation and telecommuting are the result of globalisation along with intensifying emphasis on the adoption of international labour standards in workplaces. As a result Nigeria, like most countries of the developed world, has seen significant changes in its tripartite industrial relations. If we reflect on the number of actors who participated in the 2013 trade dispute between the Federal Government (FG) and the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), such changes depict industrial relations as multipartite rather than tripartite. While identifying these emerging multiple actors, this article places industrial relations in a broader multidisciplinary framework and demonstrates the need to review current theories, legislation, approaches and institutional frameworks while developing indigenous ones to achieve a proper and more in-depth understanding of the Nigerian model of multipartite industrial relations.