WORK REORGANISATION AND DECENT WORK IN THE FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Decent Work (DW) is productive work in which workers‟ rights, adequate income and social protection are guaranteed. However, competition and diversity in labour market affects DW. Previous studies concentrated on decent work deficits, but few focused on the effects of work reorganisation on DW. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of work reorganisation on decent work in the Food and Beverage industry in Lagos State, Nigeria. Neo-liberal and Social Action theories provided the framework. Research design was crosssectional survey. Multi-stage sampling procedure was employed to select the respondents. Four organisations were purposively selected: Nigerian Bottling Company and Cadbury Nigeria Plc, (Food sub-sector) Guinness Plc and Nigerian Breweries Plc (Beverage sub-sector). The organisations were selected based on their business duration and reorganisations that had affected workers over the past three decades. A total of 856 permanent and non-permanent workers were proportionately selected as follows: Food sub-sector (555) and beverage sub-sector (301). A semi-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on socio-economic characteristics, indices that constituted DW, perception about effects of work reorganisation on workers‟ benefits, treatment of permanent and non-permanent workers and effects of work reorganisation on workers‟ access to terminal benefits. A total of 24 In-depth interviews were conducted among management (4), senior (4), junior staff (4), non-permanent workers (4) and eight Trade unions leaders across the sub-sectors. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and multivariate statistics (P