Collective Bargaining and the Incidence of Trade Disputes in Teaching Hospitals in the South East

Abstract

Nigeria has suffered greatly from numerous healthcare workers trade disputes and strikes over the years. These have in no small measure affected the performance level of this sector and, has resulted in multiple avoidable mortalities and morbidities in Nigeria. This study examined how wage determination has influence these trade dispute in teaching hospitals in the south east. In addition to very limited research focus on teaching hospitals in the southeast of Nigeria, the success of solutions to salient wage related disputes in the health sector may lie in the ability to question emanating assumptions, and incorporate the understanding into meaningful health policies. The study employed cross sectional design and adopted convergent parallel mixed method research strategy. A total of 625 respondents were randomly drawn from the teaching hospitals. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain quantitative data while in-depth interview guide was used to acquire qualitative data from interviewees. Quantitative data was analyzed using the statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) software while qualitative data was analyzed using thematic content analysis. The stated hypotheses were tested using chi- square (X²) statistics and results were presented in frequency tables, percentages, and charts. The outcome of this study revealed that trade disputes persist due to absence of transparent commitment by authorities charged with the responsibility of implementation of collective bargaining, and dearth of budgetary provision to implement collective agreement. Also reluctance by government to review wage periodically has escalated agitations in the health sector. findings also indicate that fractionalization of unions whereby each profession wants to be recognized and given precedence by government has ridden the health sector with disputes. It is on this score that this study recommends that government should imbibe the democratic culture of collective bargaining by showing willingness and intensify cooperation to bargain in good faith in order to find common ground and resolve disputes amicably. Also government and health managers should introduce an evenly spread of financial and non-financial benefits to the health workforce in the form of career development, special skills acquisition and other varieties of human capacity development programs. This can possibly stem industrial disputes among health professionals.