Of all the factors of production, labour is agreeably the most important. The quantity of labour available for any economy consists of all those able and willing to work, this including the self-employed, unemployed as well as the employed workers. Little wonder most nations of the world pay serious attention to this important factor of production, a reason the issue of unemployment is regarded as one of the most important social issues bedeviling many societies in recent times.
Most nations of the world are seemingly facing the tripartite challenges of security, climate change and unemployment. It is not surprising that in the face of widespread unemployment, employers of labour have brought a new twist to employment in the name of casualization of workers. Casualization as a form of labour practice is the process whereby employment shifts from a preponderance of full time and permanent positions to higher levels of casual positions, in an irregular or intermittent nature.
The use of casualization as a business model, involves the strategic substitution of full time workers with contract or agency labour. Formal workers, called ‘regular’ company employees, are hired directly by the company. They receive contracts that explain their work conditions, wages, hours of work, and benefits. They have the right to form unions and bargain collectively to extend their voice in the workplace. In contrast, casual workers are often employed by third party contractor under various types of part time and or short term work arrangements.
Casual workers perform many of the same technical and professional duties as regulars, but with no job security. They face frequent layoffs and long periods of revolving short term contracts under a never ending probation. Thought they work at the facilities of the companies and their work is a large part of these companies’ productivity, they are legally the direct hires of smaller outside or subsidiary firms and their contributions are too often ignored. Most casual workers are not part of the union structure. They earn lower wages than the regular workers, receive fewer benefits, and can be fired at will.
This changing pattern of work, say casual, contract, temporary, part time employments, subcontracting and so on have created concerns for workers and trade unions alike. Job security, social security, terminal benefits and minimum conditions of work are some of the issues of concern. Also, the remuneration of contract staff is not fair comparable to that of the permanent workers. They are denied the right to organize and benefit from collective agreements. They are mostly not protected from exploitation by the employers.
Casualization is detrimental to employees and has grave consequences on the employer and the national economy as a whole. It goes beyond trade union rights because it is enabled by the widespread poverty, joblessness, and the wasted resources of the country. It is just a manifestation of the degradation of work status from formal to informal employment and from permanent to temporary and precarious forms of work.
The growth in casualization of workers or irregular work as we may call it changes the nature of employment from a labour relationship to a commercial relationship with the workers taking all the risk. In Nigeria, the scourge of casualization of employment is gaining grounds in an unprecedented proportion, intensity and scale. The increase in the spread and gradual acceptance of this labour practice in the Nigerian labour market has become an issue of great concern to stakeholders.
Employers of labour are increasingly filling positions in their organizations that are supposed to be permanent with casual employees. It is now the in thing in most organizations in Nigeria. A shocking revelation to me was when I was informed in the cause of my findings that in one of the leading commercial bank in Nigeria, that one can only find a maximum of two permanent employees in any of their branches, that all other employees you find in such branches are contract employees. This is an indication that if the trend is not addressed soon, we could be in for a situation where in a particular organization from the managing director to the cleaners will all be casual staffs!
This trend is not peculiar to the domestic firms alone, most of the so called foreign firms or investors are also benefiting from this modern act of slavery. Some of them are economic saboteurs, not only by evading taxes and so on, but by placing lots of their employees on casual contracts hence, making them work under untellable circumstances all in the name of making profit which will at the end of the day be repatriated back to their home country.
It is essential to point out here that casualization though seen as an appropriate strategy for cost reduction by most contemporary employers is not acceptable. It is an act of wickedness against manpower. It can in my own view spur up the spirit of wastages in the mind of the affected employees since they will always have to see themselves as non-stakeholder in the business. Hence, legislation that forbids casualization of workers in Nigeria is long overdue otherwise investors will someday casualize even the seat of the president!
Temitope Adamson
