Award Of The Industrial Arbitration Panel Under The Trade Dispute Act

Award Of The Industrial Arbitration Panel Under The Trade Dispute Act: Enforcement 

The decision or judgment of the tribunal is called an award. Section 13(1)(a) of the trade dispute act provides that the award must be in writing and must address the issues referred to the tribunal. The IAP is expected to consider and make its award on a matter before it within 21 days or such longer period as the Minister may allow in a particular case.

Section 8(b) also states that the award of a single arbitrator assisted by assessors is made by the arbitrator only. If the Arbitration Panel is made up of two or more arbitrators, the award is made by the majority in the event of a disagreement.

Section 13(1)(b) states further that the Industrial Arbitration Panel is expected to send its decision to the Minister and shall not communicate the award to the parties wrongly or rightly made ingredients such as bias or favouritism will definitely be displayed. 

When the Minister finally receives the award from the tribunal, he shall forthwith publish and give the parties or their representatives a notice setting out the award.46 The notice shall specify the time, not more than seven days from its publication, to enable any aggrieved party to give notice of objection to the award to the Minister.If the notice of objection to the award is not made within the prescribed time, the Minister will then publish it in the Federal Gazette. This legally confirms the award. The probing question before us is, who actually determines the case of parties at the IAP. 

Is it the Minister or IAP itself? 

Again, as earlier noted, the Minister has the discretion to determine whether the award is reasonable or not. This has the negative effect of impinging or curbing the independence of the IAP to do their work effectively. Prof Agomo while describing the procedure at the IAP as circuitous stated that: The IAP does not make an award but a recommendation since it is the Minister alone who has power to confirm an award and thus make it binding upon the parties. This reduces the effectiveness of an award and makes the IAP look like an arm of government or university.

Enforcement

The enforcement of the award made by the IAP against the party in breach is very weak. This is because unlike the formal Court that has an organized and practical method of enforcing any judgment of the court, that is not the same with the award made by an IAP. This observation is made in the face of the fact that failure to comply with the terms of an IAP award do not usually result in criminal liabilities against the party in breach. 

Another disadvantage of the situation is that sometimes the party who has had an award made in his favour is at the whims and caprices of the losing party. As a matter of fact, we see this exemplified in this country in cases where the Federal government and the trade Unions are at logger heads over certain issues More often than not, the awards are usually made against the Federal government and the trade unions in whose favour the award is made have no means of enforcing it. It degenerates to the unions getting frustrated as they are subjected to a long period of waiting hoping that the Federal government will abide by the terms of the award. Oftentimes, it becomes an indefinite wait which births the succession of the Government by another. And if the successor has a human face, it may refer to the award and comply to its terms. 

However, when an award is made by the court in respect of an appeal before it, the terms therein contained become binding on the parties The award is like any other judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction and must be enforced It is contempt of court if the decision is not obeyed by the parties. 

Enforcement can be carried in the following ways: 

(a) By cooperation of the parties, in particular the party who initiates the action. The judgment is enforced if he does everything he is required to do by the right of appeal, if he so desires to challenge the judgment. 

(b) If the defeated party, say the defendant, refuses to abide by the judgment, then the victorious party i.e. the plaintiff, is required to obtain leave of court to enforce the judgment under the Sheriff and Civil Processes Act (Law). Here the court bailiff will be involved to levy execution on the defendant. The latter, may even be charged with contempt of court for his failure to obey the judgment of the IAP.