THE PREVALENCE OF NON-STANDARD WORK ARRANGEMENTS AND ITS IMPACT ON WORKERS' RIGHTS IN NIGERIA'S OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

The nature of employment relationship is fast changing from the traditional fulltime/permanent employment to non-standard employment relationship characterized by the use of contract/casual workers. Therefore, this study investigates the incidence of increasing adoption of non-standard work arrangement in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria and its effect on the rights of workers. Its main objective is to determine how non-standard work arrangements have affected workers’ rights in the workplace. To achieve this, the study adopted an empirical approach by relying heavily on existing secondary data. The result of the investigation showed that a large percentage of workers in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria are under non-standard employment relationship. In addition, the result shows a gross abuse of the workers right to freedom of association and collective bargaining as employer often stand in opposition to any move of the workers to join trade union. Thus, as a result of lack of a recognized framework for collective bargaining, the workers are denied their right to statutory benefits and decent work as enshrined in the labor regulations and ILO Conventions.