10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

Casualization has become the most prevalent and persistent issues in the Nigeria academic industries existing in both federal and state tertiary institutions in Nigeria with specific reference to Public Universities. This system of employment has far reaching consequences on the employee life balance as they have little or no job security, employment uncertainty and limited or no benefits in the workplace. The high rates of casualization of Academic and Non Academic staff in the Nigeria universities has raised a serious concern about the employee wellbeing and productivity. Hence, this study focus to x-ray the precarious employment and work-life imbalance among contract based staff in Nigeria public universities with the aim of examining the effect of precarious employment on job insecurity among the contract based employees in the Nigeria Public Universities and to also identify the underpinning/determinant factors responsible for contract employment in the Nigeria Public Universities. This study anchored on Conservation of Resources Theory. The study used secondary source of data. The findings of the study reveals that job insecurity and employment uncertainty associated with contract employment has potential effect on the well-being and productivity among the contract based staff in Nigeria public universities. However, the study recommended that Nigeria University Commission and Nigeria public universities should as a matter of urgency design effective and strategic policies that strengthening conversion of long term serving contract staff to permanent and pensionable employment after specific years of service. The study also recommend that Nigeria public universities should harmonize the pay and benefits between the permanent and contract based staff performing the same duties in the universities.