By Chinedu Echianu
The Federal Government on Wednesday formally launched Nigeria’s first National Industrial Relations Policy (NIRP), describing it as a major step toward strengthening industrial harmony, promoting decent work and supporting inclusive economic growth.
The policy was unveiled at the United Nations Building in Abuja during a ceremony attended by government officials, labour leaders, employers’ representatives and development partners.
Speaking at the event, Minister of Labour and Employment Muhammad Maigari-Dingyadi, said the new framework would provide a unified direction for labour relations in Nigeria, noting that for decades the country’s industrial relations system had been guided by statutes, conventions and practice without a comprehensive national policy.
He said the absence of a single framework had often allowed workplace disputes to escalate unnecessarily and had sometimes made collective bargaining more adversarial than collaborative.
According to the minister, the National Industrial Relations Policy is built on three core pillars — social dialogue, rights at work, and productivity and competitiveness.
He said the policy would strengthen platforms for engagement between government, employers and workers, including the National Labour Advisory Council and sectoral joint councils. He added that it reaffirms freedom of association, collective bargaining, elimination of forced and child labour, and non-discrimination in line with International Labour Organization (ILO) core conventions ratified by Nigeria.
The minister also said industrial peace must translate into practical economic outcomes, including job creation, improved wages, enterprise growth, skills development and stronger occupational safety standards.
He disclosed that the policy emerged from six years of tripartite consultations involving government, labour unions, employers and technical partners.
“The document is not handed down from government. It is the product of broad consultation and negotiation,” he said, while commending the International Labour Organization, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), and officials of the ministry for their contributions.
On implementation, the minister announced plans to strengthen labour institutions such as the Industrial Arbitration Panel and the National Labour Advisory Council to enable faster dispute resolution.
He also revealed that the ministry would launch a nationwide training programme for trade union leaders, human resource managers and labour officers on mediation and interest-based bargaining.
In addition, the government plans to establish a National Industrial Relations Observatory to track workplace grievances and intervene before they escalate into strikes.
The minister noted that the policy also seeks to extend dispute resolution and social protection mechanisms to workers in the informal economy, including artisans, market associations and platform workers through cooperative structures.
He urged labour unions to use the framework to deepen constructive engagement, describing strikes as a measure of last resort, while calling on employers to embrace fair negotiations, transparency and respect for agreements reached during collective bargaining.
Linking the policy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda, the minister said stable labour relations were critical to achieving the administration’s goals of job creation and poverty reduction.
“You cannot create jobs in an atmosphere of distrust. You cannot reduce poverty where wages are lost to avoidable strikes,” he said.
Also speaking at the event, the ILO Country Director for Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and Liaison Office for ECOWAS, Vanessa Phala, described the launch as a “symbolic and profoundly transformative milestone” for the future of work in Nigeria.
Phala commended the Federal Government for what she described as sustained political commitment in driving the process, noting that the decision to invest in a forward-looking and inclusive industrial relations framework was both courageous and visionary.
She also praised employers’ and workers’ organisations for their constructive engagement, saying their participation ensured that the policy reflected both Nigeria’s economic realities and the need to protect workers’ rights and promote decent work.
According to her, one of the defining features of the new policy is its inclusive and nationally owned character.
“This is not a policy imported from elsewhere, nor a reform imposed from outside. It is a co-created policy, born out of dialogue, deliberation and collective responsibility,” she said.
Phala said the policy addresses both traditional labour issues such as social dialogue, collective bargaining and dispute resolution, as well as emerging challenges linked to technological change, ecological transition, demographic shifts, informality and the future of work.
She reaffirmed the ILO’s commitment to supporting Nigeria in the implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the policy.
“The launch of this policy is not an end in itself. It marks the beginning of a decisive phase — the phase of implementation,” she said.
The National Industrial Relations Policy is expected to serve as a national framework for managing labour relations, strengthening trust among social partners and creating a more stable environment for investment, productivity and decent job creation.
