A CRITICAL STUDY ON THE INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS IN AN ORGANISATION.

A CRITICAL STUDY ON THE INDUSTRIAL CONFLICTS IN AN ORGANISATION (A CASE STUDY OF GUINESS (NIG.) PLC IKEJA LAGOS)

ABSTRACT

Companies’ revenue and profit have been adversely affected by the ever-increasing incidence of industrial conflicts between workers and management in recent times. Each time there is a conflict, most likely strike ensues thereby giving rises to manna-day hours lost which brings about loss in productivity. This has really been a problem in the aim various sectors of the economy.  It is the aim of this research work to find out the course and the remedy to industrial conflicts. This research work has five chapters. Chapter one contains a general discussion of the industrial conflicts. It further state the problem, the scope, the limitation and finally the definition of terms.  A number of proof related literature examiners by other studies as it relates to industrial conflicts are highlighted in chapter two. Chapter three deals with the design of the study, the method used in collecting relevant data.  In chapter four, the data got from the research survey were analyzed and interpreted. Finally, the summary of findings, conclusion on the research and recommendations made by the researcher are all in chapter five.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The parties to Industrial conflict are usually the management and employees or the labour or workers union and the government and its agencies. The medium in which these parties interact is through the Industrial relation system. The aim of the various parties is maintenance of Industrial peace.  But Industrial peace does not mean in the grave yard.  To us Industrial peace is something more than the absence of conflict in the work place. In labour management relations, conflict is more than the expression of irritability or ill-will. Inspite of the strong desire among the parties in the industrial relation system to co-exist, there is nevertheless latent antagonism among them because of the following factors. Firstly, the interests of both the employer and the employee are not completely mutual. Management may be trying to keep cast down while union is seeking higher wages. The employer’s representative is mainly concerned with proprietary interest, which in turn is directly related to the financial interest of the shareholders. 

The interest of the employee, organization or union is primarily that of people as well as their material, spiritual and physiological needs. Secondly, the desire of the parties is more or less unlimited wages can never be as high as the workers mighty desire as profit is the determinant for managed, to consider increasing wages. Nevertheless, the money available for distribution between the contending parties or claimants is always limited in the short-run. Thirdly, both modern and development societies are dynamic. Consequently, even if a certain distribution of income and power could be devised which was not subject to controversy in any given situation, there might be a change because of new regulations by the state, patterns of consumption, high cost of raw materials, a reduced value of the monetary unit as well as an increased income for a comparable group elsewhere. The parties would therefore need to work for a new allocation of income and power. 

Finally, if management and labour are to retain their institutional identities, they must disagree and act on the disagreement: conflict or dispute is a sine qua non for survival. The union, which is in constant and total agreement with management, has ceased to be a union. The same is true of management. These factors have demonstrated the inevitability and desirability of work place conflict. The Guinness Nigeria PLC Ikeja Lagos has about five major sectors namely:

Bottling compound, this is a section of the industry which deals with bottles. Workers here are involved in washing and treating empty bottles. The empty bottles are first given a preliminary hot water rinse at 500C. A second hot water rinse at 500 C is next given. The bottles are then soaked in caustic soda at the temperature of 700C. A caustic soda spray is next given at 700C. The bottles are then rinsed at 500C. First warm water rinse is made at 250C and second at 100C. The bottles are then ready for use in the bottling hall.  Bottling hall- This section is involved with the bottling of the already made drink. The workers here are involved in the handling of the empty bottles, filling, corking and labeling of the bottles.  Brewery section is the most important because quality of the drink produced depends on how thoroughly the drink processing was.  Engineering section is involved with the maintenance of the machines used in the industry. The engineers in this section work in all the sections of the