Remuneration of Casual Workers in Selected foreign-owned Manufacturing Industries in Southwest, Nigeria

Abstract

As many African countries takes steps into becoming self-sufficient economically viable entities, the Nigerian governments have taken steps to ensure attractive, investor-friendly policies which to a large extent has yielded Foreign Direct Investment thus, revenue for the country. As unemployment looms large in Nigeria, it is not surprising that employers of labour have brought a new twist to employment in the name of casualization of labour. Evidences have showed that casual workers perform many of the same technical and professional duties as regulars, but are not receiving the welfare benefits expected of them. The paper examined the category and remuneration of casual workers in manufacturing industries vis-à-vis the Nigerian Labour Laws. The Police theory of welfare was adopted to explain issues raised in the study. The research was descriptive in nature. It adopted survey and qualitative research designs. Purposive and snowball sampling techniques were used to select respondents. Questionnaire and In-depth interviews were used to gather relevant data. While SPSS 20.0 was used to analyze the former, Nvivo 8 software was used to analyze the latter. 225 questionnaires were completely filled by casual workers from three foreign-owned manufacturing industries, thus valid for data analysis. The study revealed that aside the mode of recruiting casual and permanent staffs is similar, casual workers remuneration was against the Nigerian Labour law. This outright disobedience prevailed mostly in Indian and Chinese owned industries, as British employers have better remuneration for casual workers. The study concludes that workers dignity has come under heavy attack by foreign industrialists even at the face of the local and international norms. The study recommends that all foreign employers must regularize the status of casual worker within an agreed time frame or as spelled out by the Nigerian Labour Act. Casual workers are to acquire more education as it might determine the remuneration that would accrue to them. Lastly, government and other policy makers should ensure that labour laws are carefully implemented and evaluated to protect, casual workers from the exploitation of foreign employers.

Keywords: Casual Workers, Foreign employers, Law, Manufacturing industries, Remuneration