The Legal Framework for Employment Relations: The Tortuous Evolution of Labor 19 and Social Laws in the Practice of Industrial Relations in Nigeria

This paper represents an attempt at analyzing the legal framework within which employment Relations is practiced in Nigeria, focusing on the tortuous evolution of the labor and social laws for the practice of Industrial Relations. The paper adopted a descriptive and historical method in analyzing the legal framework for the practice of employment Relations in Nigeria. The paper noted that the evolution of this legal framework is seen to be tortuous because its emergence led to the following traumatic events in the practice of Industrial Relations in Nigeria: Proliferation of pocket-sized unions; the characterization of Trade Unions and central labor organization with divisiveness and instability; the tortuous labor codes assigned little or no role to workers on labor matter; the Labor codes of the era gave employers the effrontery to decide not to recognize or relate with Trade Unions. The paper concluded that a change in Industrial Relations practice in Nigeria is partly a function of the impact of the legal framework (labor laws) that emerged in a particular historical period of the country.