“NUPENGASSAN” combatting precarious work in the Nigerian oil industry

Aye, Baba,

ILO Working Papers from International Labour Organization

Abstract: The literature on informality is largely focused on the “informal sector” as a marginal or peripheral sphere of national economic life, beyond the pale of the leading formal industrial sectors, particularly in developing countries. This paper interrogates informalisation of labour and employment relations within the formal sector as its point of departure. The contemporary prevalence of precarious work which this foster is identified as a key element of the neoliberal agenda for keeping wages low and for maintaining social control. A mix of strategies rooted in unions’ organising power and which attains some level ofinstitutionalisation of social dialogue, such as the expansion of collective bargaining structures and mechanisms to represent “casual workers” is seen as fundamental for a transition to the formalisation of their status, and the curtailing of employers’ unilateralist power in the world of work. The experiences of oil and gas workers’ unions (collectively known as NUPENGASSAN) in Nigeria is utilised to illustrate this argument. The paper situates NUPENGASSAN’s organising and representation of contract staffers within the context of how labour and employment relations are informalised from above in the sector.

Keywords: precarious employment; gas; petroleum industry; informal economy; labour relations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 p.) pages
Date: 2017
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Published in Working paper / Global Labour University

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ilo:ilowps:995635832502676

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