Labour Productivity Assessment of Dredging Operations in Some Selected Companies in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study aims at assessing the labour productivity of dredging companies in Lagos state, Nigeria. The ideal measure of labour input is the total number of hours worked, broken down by type of labour input. Number of persons employed or number of jobs can generate biased measures of productivity if hours per person change or if there are multiple job holdings. Data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire, administered to ten (10) dredging sites among the managers and operating employees in the study area. A total of 60 respondents were sampled for the study. The personal information provided by the respondents had no significant influence on the labour input. The responses provided by the respondents via the questionnaire were organized and analyzed descriptively using the software package, Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). It was found that the labour input had no significant influence on productivity, rather the differences in level of productivity was related to the type of technology used. Production was found to be low in companies that make use of the Chinese technology dredgers even though the technology involves more operators than the Conventional type dredgers. It will be recommended that the companies increase their number of shifts so as to increase their productivity and increase their number of hired labour involved in operations from the residents of the neighbouring communities.