ABSTRACT
This study dealt with the Impact of Trade Union on Disputes Settlement in Banking Institution and
Its Effect on Employees with references to United Bank of Africa (UBA).
The significance of disputes settlement
machinery should be efficient and effective, so as to settle dispute or
conflict or conflict in the banking institution on time resolve dispute
adequately.
This study used questionnaire method in
carrying out the study. Questionnaires were distributed to the workers in
various departments.
The findings of the study was that if the
employees are unhappy and aggrieved towards the organisation then there will be
low productivity i=under utilisation of resources and even less profit which
will be very unhealthy for the organisation.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS
PAGE
Title Page ` i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgment iv
Abstract v
Table of contents vi
CHAPTER
ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Brief
Overview of the Subject of Study 1
1.2 Statement
of Problem
3
1.3 Purpose
of the Study 4
1.4 Research
Questions 5
1.5 Statement
of Research Hypothesis 5
1.6 Scope
of the Study 6
1.7 Significance
/Relevance of the Study 6
1.8 Data
Collection Instruments 6
1.9 Methods
of Data Analysis 9
1.10 Limitations
of Methodology 11
1.11 Definition
of Terms 11
1.12 Sampling
Size 12
References 14
CHAPTER
TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Brief
Introduction 15
2.2 Objective
and Functions of Trade Union 16
2.3 Labour
Management Relations 18
2.3.1 Union
Right and Management Prerogatives 23
2.4 What
Constitutes a Dispute? 24
2.5 What
are Grievances 27
References 35
CHAPTER
THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 The
Method of Research Use 36
3.2 Historical
Background of UBA 36
3.3 Organisational
Structure and Activities of the Bank 37
3.4 The
Staff/Personnel Department 39
3.5 The
Study Population 41
3.6 Availability
of Sample 42
3.7 Methodology
Constraint 42
CHAPTER
FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
OF DATA
4.1 Brief
Introduction of the Chapter 43
4.2 Characteristics and Classification of Population being
Studied 43
CHAPTER
FIVE: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, IMPLICATION OF
FINDINGS,
RECOMMENDATIONS AND
CONCLUSION
5.1 Summary
of Findings 56
5.2 The
Implication of the Findings 57
5.3 Recommendations
60
5.4 Concussion 62
5.5 Suggestions
for Further Research Study 62
Bibliography 63
Appendix: Questionnaire
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE SUBJECT OF STUDY
Section 2(h) of the Trade Unions
Act, 1926 has defined a trade union as “Any combination, whether temporary or
permanent, formed primarily for the purpose of regulating the relations between
workmen and employers, or between workmen and workmen, or between employers and
employers, or for imposing restrictive conditions on the conduct of any trade
or business, and includes any federation of two or more trade unions (Carroll, 1969).” This definition is very exhaustive as it includes
associations of both the workers and employers and the federations of their
associations.
Only trade unions can represent employees and bargain
collectively. Individuals, clubs or corporations cannot bargain collectively.
This often makes it important to determine if an organization has trade union
status (Akpala,
1991).
Alberta (2002) defines trade union as the means an organization of
employees that has a written constitution, rules or bylaws and has as one of
its objects the regulation of relations between employers and employees.
According to him (2002), this
definition contains three requirements:
1. A trade union must be an organization of employees. The definition calls for employees formally joining together. It
contemplates a democratic organization run by employees for their benefit.
2. A union’s governing documents must be in writing. This enables employees to understand the rules by which the union
operates.
3. One of the organization’s objects must be “the regulation of
relations between employers and employees.” The exact words are less
important than having an objects clause that fits this general requirement. It
distinguishes trade unions from social or benevolent organizations unsuited to
carrying out trade union duties.
According to Addison and Hirsch
(1989) they stressed that dispute is defined as a collective difference (or
“failure to agree”) on a matter concerning a number of employees, which is
pursued on their behalf by one or more recognized Trade Unions and the
University of Surrey. Banjoko (1996) added that such matters would
be connected with the employees' work or working environment and would include
all matters that might be covered under a legally declared trade dispute.
It would exclude:
• Matters covered by national level
negotiations.
• Changes required by legislation.
• Matters which have previously been
dealt with under this procedure itself.
• National or regional disputes
declared by one or more of the recognized trade unions with a group of
employers.
Allen
(1984) opined that dispute is not an individual complaint by an employee – this
is dealt with through the Grievance procedure and is not appropriate for
discussion within the Dispute Resolution Procedure.
He
(1984) further stressed that the purpose of the Disputes Resolution Procedure
is to provide a fair, structured and consistent approach for the consideration
of disputes and should be instigated when all reasonable attempts have been
made to resolve the difference, but such attempts have been unsuccessful.
The
disputes between workers and managements are considered as labour disputes
(Bean and Turnbull, 1988). However, the disputes among workers, investors -
managers- employers are also taken as labour disputes in some circumstance. According
to Ubeku (1980) some countries have
broadened the circumference of labour disputes whereas some have narrowed it.
Labour dispute isn't defined in labour laws of our country, but clear
indication is towards the dispute between employers and employees (Umesh and Ramesh, 1997).
According to Bellman (1992) labour
disputes emerge because of disharmony in interest between two sides of labour
relations. Sometimes labour legislation and rules and regulations of government
under the legislation create confusion and hence disputes come on the surface.
Disputes are also caused by third party intervention (Akpala, 1991). If
the government cannot not balance itself in terms of equidistance and fail to
distance from vested interests, labour disputes might arise. Inter-enterprise
understanding and good bipartite relation is the key point to the settlement of
labour disputes.
A dispute settlement procedure can be defined
as any procedure designed to resolve disagreement between workers and their
employers or between trade unions and employers. It is any set of procedural rules
incorporating all or any of the following.
- a
grievance procedure
- a
negotiating procedure and
- a
redundancy procedure.
Given the inevitability of conflict in the
workplace and the varying dimensions with which they come, the actors in the
work environment have to evolve ways and means at which resulting grievances
and disputes are resolved. The dispute
settlement machinery provides a meaningful approach to the employees and
employers. This goes a long way in
ensuring the survival of the organization in order to achieve the purpose for
which it was set up.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Why are we interested in trade union in dispute
settlement?
If a trade union is “a continuous association
of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of
their working lives, the effective achievement of this task depends on an
effective and efficient disputes settlement procedure.
The enactment of special legislation to
forester and promote proper organization of Nigeria trade unions has become an
important part of labour policy and administration. The first comprehensive labour – regulating
legislation to be enacted in Nigeria
was the 1938. Trade union ordinance which permitted as few as 5 persons to
organize a Trade union. This was
followed by the 1973. trade union Decree
which increased the number of workers that constitute a union to 50. Again in 1978, the government intervened to
bring out the Trade union (Amendment) decree which radically changed the
structure of Nigeria
trade unions from craft and general unions to industrial unions. With this restructuring there emerged better
functional industrial unions and evolution of a new industrial relation system
in Nigeria.
There emerged as a result.
1.
41 industrial unions of
Junior workers
2.
24 Senior staff
Associations
3.
23 Employers’ Associations
4.
1 central labour
organization (NLC).
In 1996 the Federal government enacted another
Decree, Trade Unions amendment decree No 4, further restructuring the trade
unions from 41 industrial union to 29.
Part B of the third schedule containing the list of senior staff association
and employer’s associations were completely omitted in the new decree. This has
led to controversies between the government and labour movement.
1.3 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this exercise is to determine to
what extent and how effectively the dispute settlement machinery have been able
to check this incidence of trade disputes in recent times via trade unions
involvement. And also to find-out
basically the role that trade unions play in dispute settlement between
employees and management.
This will be done in the following area:-
-
Determine what kind of
problems that might arise between management and employees.
-
Determine to what extent
the management tries to solve the problem with the employees and the stage at
which the union comes in.
-
Also to examine the
prospects and opportunities of the union in its bid to achieve this arduous
task enhancing working welfare.
-
Evaluate the strength and
contributions of trade unions as a tool to settling disputes between the
employees and management.
-
Analyze the pros and cons
associated with that use of trade unions in dispute settlement.
Finally, the study would endeavour to find
feasible and realistic answer to the questions posed by the finding and
investigations carried out in the course of the study. Furthermore, appropriate recommendations
would be made on the modalities for achieving a more and better organized
union.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. Should the trade union take into consideration the
reasonableness of the employee’s grievance towards the management?
2. Could the trade unions truly represent the interests of their
members or just representing their own interest?
3. Should the members and employees respect the opinions and
decisions of their trade leaders?
1.5 STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
Ho: Trade union should not play much role in grievance settlement
between employees and management.
H1: Trade union should play significant role in
grievance settlement between employees and management.
Ho: trade union could not truly represent the interest of their
members.
H1: Trade union could truly represent the
interest of their members.
Ho: Members and employees should not respect the opinions and
decisions of their trade leaders.
H1: Members and employees should respect the
opinions and decisions of their trade leaders.
1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
Owing to time and financial constraints, our
study shall be limited to Lagos
State. The research will be carried out in United
Bank for Africa Plc (UBA), Marina Branch in Lagos Island.
1.7 SIGNIFICANCE /RELEVANCE OF THE STUDY.
The dispute settlement machinery should be
efficient and effective, so as to settle dispute or conflict in the banking
institutions on time to resolve dispute adequately.
1.8 DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS.
Data collection instrument as stated by Asika.
N. (1991) is a device for collecting the data or measuring the variable which
are used for answering researcher questions and or testing study hypothesis.
The technique of data collective will be
basically the survey method. The
characteristics of the samples are neither controlled nor manipulated but will
be a direct reflection of the belief, opinion, understanding, feeling and
perception of United Bank of Africa (UBA) workforce of the role of the trade
union in dispute settlement in their organization. The three major instruments to be use in data
collection are:
a.
Questionnaires
b.
Interviews
c.
Data from company record.
a. QUESTIONNAIRES.
The questionnaires were designed to enhance the
objective of the study. The questions
were designed in such a way so as to avoid ambiguity. Also respondents were assured of the
confidentiality use of information supplied by them.
The questionnaire was designed in two
parts. Part A and B. part A of the questionnaire consists of
information on the personal data of the respondents i.e. Bio-data while the
Part B of the questionnaire consist of questions based on the research
questions stated.
Section B was further divided into sub-sections
with each sub-section representing a researcher question. The questions in section B were designed in
form of liked scale in order to ensure uniformity. The questions are stated in unambiqous
natures which are measured in a five (5) point scale. The magnitudes of respondents’ agreement are
indicated in the 5 point scale which were rated as follows:-
Strongly Agree
(SA) ------------------------------ 5
Agree (A) ------------------------------- 4
Undecided (UN) ------------------------------- 3
Disagree (D) ------------------------------- 2
Strongly Disagree (SD) -------------------------------
1
(b). INTERVIEW
Interview is used in obtaining verbal
information from the respondents. It can
be face to face or telephone interview.
To ensure the validity of this instrument, an interview schedule is
needed by the researcher. It has
immediate response, it makes the process flexible and also it is relatively
cheap when the respondent are few and at the same location.
(c) DATA FROM COMPANY’S RECORDS.
This is the information and raw data gathered
from personal interview from staff, annual report quarterly magazine, the
history of the organization and their recent project etc.
The data collection instrument that will be use
in this research is questionnaire due to its advantages i.e. it is economical,
easy to analyze, it is available for reference purpose, it can also be used for
a large audience who may not be on one location, it gives the respondent time
to think about the answer that he has to do than when he’s been interviewed.
1.9 METHODS OF DATA ANALYSIS.
The abstracted data will be presented in an
orderly manner using tables, graphs and diagram. Also the use of the questionnaire (Bio-data
section) will be analyzed on the based of sex, marital status, age
distribution, educational qualification length of service, rank/present
position.
We hare various method of data analysis and
they are.
1.
correlation analysis
2.
chi-square
3.
regression.
CORRELATION ANALYSIS
This deals with exploring relationship between
two variables (xy). There are 2 types of
correlations.
a.
Pearson’s correlation
co-efficient
b.
Spearman rank correlation
co-efficient
CHI-SQUARE
This is a statistic process for determining the
level of independence between 2 variables.
It helps in determining the whole genetic in the distribution of a
simple variable. It involves comparing 2
sets of data which are:
1.
The Observed
2.
The expected
REGRESSION ANALYSIS
It is an important area in statistics which
helps in forecasting. It helps to
investigate whether, there is a relationship between 2 variables x & y.
ANOVA
It is use for 3 or more samples.
But in this research I will be using chi-square
due to its advantages.
a.
it is very easy to
calculate
b.
it involves comparing 2
set of data
c.
it helps in determining
the whole genetics in the distribution of a simple variables.
The second part of the questionnaire which is
divided into four sub-sections will be analyzed using the SPSS (Statistical
package for social science) under this package, such statistical variables like
simple percentages, means, median, mode
correlation etc, will be used to determine the degrees of agreement or
disagreement. 50% and more will be
assumed to be acceptable while less than 50% will be assumed to be
unacceptable.
1.10 LIMITATIONS OF METHODOLOGY.
One of the limitations of this method is its
inability to check the personal bias of the respondents. Some of the respondents who has personal
guide against the union were very much biased in their answering of the questions.
Also, because of the confidentiality attached
to some information in the organizations, or as a matter of company policy,
respondent may not want to divulge some information though they may be useful
to the research study.
Finally, the major limitation is the inability
of the questionnaire to reflect the ever changing circumstances in UBA (United
Bank for Africa) due to its inflexibility it is also impossible for the
questionnaire to cover all cases of the role of trade unions in UBA and also
due to the fact that their union is not a very strong one, most of the
employees could not answer most of the questions on the trade union in the
organization.
1.11 DEFINITION OF TERMS
a. INDUSTRIAL RELATION
SYSTEM: It can be define as the
relationships which exist between the workers, employers and government for the
furtherance of peace, employees’ satisfaction and organizational growth.
b. INDUSTRIAL CONFLICT: It is any dispute of difference between
employers and employers or between employees and employees or between employers
and employees, which is connected with the employment or non-employment, or the
terms of employment or with the conditions of work of any person.
c. TRADE UNION: It can be define as a continuous association
of wage earners for the purpose of maintaining and improving the condition of
their working lives.
d. DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
PROCEDURE: It can be defined as any procedure designed to resolve
disagreement between workers and their employers or between trade unions and
employers. It is any set of procedural
rules incorporating a grievance procedure, redundancy & negotiating.
1.12 SAMPLING SIZE
In every research, there is always the need for
authentic information which will in turn give a reliable result and due to this
fact; the decision was made to choose a representative sample from the study
population since it will be impossible for the researcher to reach the entire
study population.
This researcher therefore decided to choose as
sample size of 65 employees (30) from senior employees and (75) from junior
employees in UBA which in the opinion of the researcher is a good
representative of the research population.
The sample sizes were chosen from the marina
Branch of United Bank for Africa (UBA) in Lagos State. The samples were chosen randomly and sex and
age distribution was not given any preferences.
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