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The word “Employee” is neither another name for a slave, nor another name for a beggar, Nigeria employees are kings and should be treated with honour by their employers. Knowing your rights as an employee in Nigeria is very important as you do not only want to keep your job but also want to keep your personal right and dignity.
An employee who work round the clock and does everything possible to ensure that his or her employer make good profit and remain in business deserves some level of regards and values because without the employees the employers are out of business.
The Nigerian Labour Act
The Nigerian Labour Act is the primary legislation which deals with the relationship between an employer and its employees. Below are some of the rights you have as an employee in Nigeria, so you must know them by heart and protect your rights as an employee:
1. Forced Labour is Illegal:
As much as you are under obligation to work for your employer so long as such employer continues to pay you your salary and all you entitlements as stipulated in the employment letter, he or she still do not have the right to force you to work against your will, should you have some emotional, psychological etc, reasons why you feel you shouldn’t work at a given time.
2. All Employees Must Have a Written Contract:
All employees must have a well written contract with their employers, in a situation where there are changes in that contract it must be brought again to the notice of the employees in writing. So it’s against your right to continuous working for an employer who refused to spell out the terms and conditions of your employment in form of employment letter or other written document even though the employer is faithful in paying your wages or salary. If you are in this category, you have the right to sue the employer to court provided you have evidence of working for him or her for a long time without a written contract.
3. Payment of Wages and Salary:
It is against your right as an employee and totally against the law for your salary or any part of your salary or wages to be paid at a period exceeding one month.
It is also illegal for your employer in Nigeria to pay you your salary or wages with any form of item other than money, this means that if for instance your employer who sells phones decided to give you a phone worth of N120,000 as a way of paying you your salary of N90,000, you still have right to sue that employer to court and have your salary paid in money and the nonrefundable phone will be seen as a gift and kind gesture from your employer.
You employer also do not have right to interfere with the manner in which you spend your salary, if you choose to waste it on partying and frivolous lifestyle that is your own business, and such you must not be sacked on the ground of wasting your salary.
4. Salary Deductions:
You employer has no right what so ever to deduct from your salary, not even on the ground of poor company revenue for the month. Income or no income your employer must look for a way pf paying your salary in full without any deduction. However, on the ground that you have caused your employer some injury or loss as an employee, he or she has the right to make some reasonable deductions commensurate with what he or she suffered but only with prior written consent of an authorised labour officer.
Again, if you were mistakenly overpaid by your employer, he or she has the right to deduct the overpaid amount within three months from the date of over-payment. However, if such deduction is made after three months of over-payment it is illegal and you have the right to sue your employer for such deduction.
5. preventing employees from joining trade unions and other labour associations:
As an employee you have the right to join any trade union or other labour association if you so desire, any contract between you and your employer that tend to put a restriction on that is totally illegal even though you had initially affixed your signature to such employment contract as a way of agreement, before the labour law of the federal republic of Nigeria such initial agreement is null and void.
6. Entitlement to Rest Hours, Sick Leave, and Holidays
Under no circumstances should an employee work for 6 hours a day without at least 1 hour rest. This means that if an employee work for 12 hours in a day, he or she should be given at least 2 hours off to rest. Secondly if a worker works for 7 days, he or she is entitled to at least 1 full day off to rest, that is 24 uninterrupted hours to rest.
In a situation where you have routine minor sickness probably as a result of stress or other reasons, you are entitle to a 12 days sick leave so long as you provide an evidence in form of a medical report by a certified doctor.
Finally on the issue of leave and rest, every employee is entitled to a 6 days holiday excluding Saturdays, Sundays and other public holidays after working continuously for 12 months. Such employee salary must be paid in full in the month in which he or she had such holiday.
7. Maternity and Paternity leave:
All female employees are entitled to at least 12 weeks’ maternity leave with full pay. Unfortunately, the Nigerian Labour Act does not recognise paternity leave and makes no such provisions. However, in Lagos State civil servants are entitled to 10 days’ paternity leave within the first 2 months of the birth of the baby.
8. Transfer of Employment:
No employee’s employment must be transferred to another employer without the consent of the employee, for example if your company is take over by another company, you must be informed in writing by your current company and the new company must also enter a fresh employment contract with you endorsed by an authorised Labour officer for it to be valid.
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9. Termination of Employment:
The Nigeria Labour Act made various provisions with regards to termination of employment based on the period of employment, the following provisions applies:
- Where the employee has been employed for a period of 3 months or less, either the employee or the employer may terminate the contract but must give a minimum of 1 day notice before it can be valid
- Where the employee has been employed for a period of 3 months but less than 2 years, either party may terminate the contract with a minimum of 1-week notice
- where the employee has been employed for a period of 2 years but less than 5 years, either party may terminate the contract with a minimum of 2-weeks notice
- Where the employee has been employed for a period of 5 years or more, either party may terminate the contract with a minimum of 1-month notice
Note: For termination of employment contract, a notice that is up to 1 week or more must be given in writing otherwise it is null and void. The legal areas in this part of the article is credit to: Lawpadi
How Much Has Nigerian Employees Benefited From Their Rights
Having talked so much about knowing your rights as an employee in Nigeria, the questions here is, has Nigerian employees really benefited much from these rights stipulated by the Nigerian Labour Act? The answer is no, as there are still so many employees who are not aware of these rights, even the few ones that are aware are reluctant to pursue these rights because of the little or no faith they have in the Nigeria judiciary.
Conclusion on the Article – Knowing Your Rights As An Employee in Nigeria
In spite of the continuous campaign about knowing your rights as an employee in Nigeria, majority of Nigeria employers have continue to oppress their employee, instead of these oppressed employee to pursue their rights in the court they continue to endure the oppression due to the unemployment situation in Nigeria as they are afraid of losing their job if they dear challenge their employers in the court of law.
As much as this article is a great eye-opener with regards to knowing your rights as an employee in Nigeria but it’s not exhaustive as there are minor clause to what is stipulated here. For more details about Nigerian Labour Act, visit the law itself – Nigerian Labour Act.
What’s your take about employees rights in Nigeria? Use the comment box below to drop your comment.
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