Labour reforms and their impacts on employment security in Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria.

Abstract

The central aim of this study is to examine and investigate the impacts of labour market reforms and flexibility trends on employment security in Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria. The implementation of these labour market reforms has led to the decline in permanent employment in the oil sector, where outsourcing, part-time jobs, temporary employment and other forms of atypical employment has taken over. The study also considers the international dimensions to labour flexibility as organisational methods of reducing labour cost. The rationale behind these reforms was to deregulate the sector and make it more flexible to the laws of supply and demand. The study asked some questions that are centrally concerned with labour market regulations and atypical employment. The research is informed by a number of problems that relate to the types of labour market reforms that were implemented by the management of Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria: how have the labour market reforms affected job security and benefits of workers in Shell Petroleum Development Company; the implications of such reforms on an individual worker’s income in Shell Petroleum Development Company; the implications of such reforms on the livelihood of the workers; and how have these labour market reforms ignited worker-organised union and community resistance in Nigeria. In providing answers to these questions, the researcher was able to achieve the objective of the study, which is to investigate the impacts of labour reforms on the employment security of Shell workers in Nigeria. Firstly, the study examined different theoretical contributions to the study of labour market flexibility. Secondly, it engages literatures on the growing trend of labour market flexibility and the erosion of job and employment security, which subsequently led to labour market regulation. Thirdly, the work situation in Shell was considered using contemporary research and data, and it was discovered that there is a degradation of work and lack of quality working life, particularly among the segmented workers. Finally, I gave some recommendations that could bring about improvement in the employment conditions of segmented workers in Shell Petroleum Development Company in Nigeria.