Expanding the Frontiers of Trade Disputes in the Workplace: Interrogating the Notion of State Trade Dispute

Abstract

This paper examines the constructions of ‘trade disputes’ and ‘state trade disputes’ under domestic labour regulations in Nigeria. It demonstrates the extent to which the prevalence of trade disputes increases the rate of industrial actions in the workplace. It opines that the recognition of the notion of state trade disputes by domestic labour regulation, inter alia , contribute in expanding the frontiers of trade disputes in the workplace, and pose recondite challenges for the current constitutional arrangement for labour jurisprudence in Nigeria. These challenges are largely anchored on the impropriety of applying similar procedures and mechanisms for resolution of trade disputes for state trade disputes, which are sui generis and distinctive in nature. The paper concludes with the expediency for unbundling labour, as an item under the Exclusive Legislative List to pave way for the involvement of the various State Houses of Assembly if the notion of state trade dispute as conceived by domestic labour regulation is to be properly harnessed.