Growing Trends in Non-Standard Employment in Nigeria: Insight from the Food and Beverage Industry

In spite of the effort of the International Labour Organization (ILO), to promote social justice and recognition of human and labour rights, decent working conditions have continued to elude workers in developing countries, job creation has gone hand in hand with the proliferation of non-standard work contracts in Nigeria such as temporary work and part-time employment. The World of Work Report 2008 showed that the incidence of part-time and temporary employment has increased over the past two decades globally. Workers joining the labour market find it easier to secure casual employment without proper contract or access to social security and remain more vulnerable to sudden changes in market conditions, have to accept severe cuts in their wages when fortunes change and are less likely to take part in training. It is estimated that approximately 4.2 million job losses had been recorded in the entire sector between 1983 and January 2006. Apart from job losses, most workers are not adequately protected as most organizations have continued to defy labour laws that abolish workers exploitations in any form as well as high workers’ violations concerning fundamental human rights at work as entrenched in the Labour Act of 2004. This study explores both primary and secondary data in bringing out clearly this phenomenon in the food and beverage industry in Nigeria. A total of 500 questionnaires was administered to workers in three selected organizations that have high  incidence of non-standard employment as well as 20 interview session with some selected workers and union executives. The  study found that this kind of employment  have tremendous impact on the workers, who have continued to be voiceless at work, lay –off at will, engaged in poor quality of work, casualised, informalised, and are forced to work among others things