International Journal Volume 2

Bratton (1999) agreed that collective bargaining is a process through which representatives of the union and management jointly determine some of the employment rules. He suggested that there are two types of rules, substantive and procedural. Substantive rules establish terms and conditions of employment, monetary issues such as pay, allowances and fringe benefits, hours of work etc. Procedural issues regulate the way in which rules are made and interpreted, and also indicate how conflicts are to be resolved or avoided. The International Labour Organization (ILO) (1986) also sees collective bargaining as a form of negotiation which takes place between an employer, a group of employers or one or more employers organizations, on the one hand and one or more workers organizations, on the other for; - Determining working conditions and terms of employment; - Regulating relations between employers and workers; and - Regulating relations between employers or their organizations and workers‟ organizations. The important dimensions emphasized in the ILO‟s definition are the levels at which negotiations take place, and the coverage of agreements concluded. As implied in the definition, negotiations can be concluded at the national or industrial level of the organization. Bargaining at this level is centralized and the agreements concluded must cover all the parties from the national to the branch level of the establishment/institution and or industry. But rules or agreements reached at the level of the enterprise (that is, branch or local level) can only be implemented at the local level. The later is what is called decentralized bargaining. Having conceptualized what constitutes collective bargaining, the questions that readily comes to mind is: what was the pattern of collective bargaining in Nigeria before the policy of deregulation. In more specific terms, how were collective or work relations which border on issues such as remuneration of workers, allowances, fringe benefits, conditions of service, etc determined? Who did what, where and how? In this paper, we will first attempt to highlight the policy before deregulation with a view to bringing into focus the tenets of the new policy. Thereafter, we will examine the extent of the implementation and the concomitant effects of the deregulation policy on work relations in our educational institutions in Nigeria.