Challenges of Work and Coping Strategies Adopted by Casual Workers in Some Selected Firms in Lagos, Nigeria

Abstract Casual workers in such sectors as telecommunication, oil and gas, power, banking, education and manufacturing both in private and public sectors in Nigeria have made significant contributions by helping in providing the manpower needed for economic development of Nigeria. Critical factors such as size (number of workers and operational branches) and age (year of incorporation) of firm usually affect the working conditions of CWs. Studies of CWs in the manufacturing sector have not adequately addressed how these factors affect the challenges of work and coping strategies adopted. This study, therefore, examined the challenges of work and coping strategies adopted by casual workers in some selected manufacturing firms in Lagos, Nigeria. A labour market segmentation theory provided the conceptual framework. The designs were both survey and exploratory. A two-stage sampling consisting of purposive and simple random techniques were used to select firms and respondents respectively. Three manufacturing firms of different sizes and ages were purposively selected. The study shows that size and age of firms affected the challenges of work and coping strategies of casual workers in the selected firms in Lagos State, Nigeria. Keywords: Casual workers in manufacturing firms, working conditions, coping Strategies of manufacturing workers, Challenges of wor