ABSTRACT

This study centers on Nigerian union of local government employees (NULGE) and the struggle for wage control in Abia state local government system. In order to carry out this study, we used four specific objectives and four hypotheses to achieve the broad objective. This study therefore sought to: find out the role of Nigerian union of local government Employees, Abia state in struggle for wage control, identify the causes of conflict between the state and Nigerian union of local government employees, Abia stale. identify the effect of corruption on the inability of the Abia state government to pay the wages of local government employees and determine the effect of high cost of governance on the inability of the Abia state government to pay the wages of local government employees. It was hypothesized that: the Nigerian union of local government employees, Abia state influences policy decisions on wage control, inability of the state government to pay the wages of its local government employees was a source of conflict between the state and the Nigerian union of local government employees, corruption is a significant contributory factor to the inability of the Abia state local government to pay the wages of the local government employees and high cost of governance is a significant contributory factor to the inability of the Abia state government to pay the wages of the local government employees. We gathered as much information as possible through the primary and secondary sources. Chi-square and Pearson's product moment correlation co-efficient were used to analyze the data collected. From our findings, the study revealed that Nigerian union of local government employees do not influence policy decision on wage control in the state and corruption and inability of the state to pay the wages of local government employees were a sources of conflict between them. In view of the above, it was recommended that both employers and representatives of workers should at all times observe the tenets of consultative collective bargaining; salaries, wages and allowances, in short monetary incentives form the recurring decimal in all industrial disputes in Nigeria in general and local government in particular. Therefore the local government employees just like those of the state and federal government, should be paid their salaries as at when due and that dialogue should be applied at any given time there is organizational conflict by both parties instead of strike.