10 essential laws Nigerian employees must know, By Taiwo Obe
By Taiwo Obe
The author came up with this explainer after reading a NewsroomNG article on how DBN TV boss Osa Sonny Adun allegedly uses religion and bananas to silence his unpaid workers.
1. You can only be paid with legal tender – cash, cheque, postal order – not “spaghetti, bread or banana.”
See Section 1 (1) of the Labour Act, Chapter 198, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria 1990:
(a) the wages of a worker shall in all contracts be made payable in legal tender and not otherwise; and (b) if in any contract the whole or any part of the wages of a worker is made payable in any other manner the contract shall be illegal, null and void.
2. You can’t be paid with intoxicating liquor or noxious drug.
See Section 1(2):
…in no case shall an employer give to any worker any intoxicating liquor or noxious drug by way of remuneration.
3. You can’t even be paid on the premises where intoxicating liquor or the retail sale of goods, unless you are employed on the premises. (See Section 3).
4. You have a right to spend your wage as you like.
See Section 2:
No employer shall impose in any contract for the employment of any worker any terms as to the place at which, or the manner in which, or the person with whom any wages paid to the worker are to be expended; and every contract between an employer and a worker containing any such terms shall be illegal, null and void.
5. You can’t take more than one-month salary in advance.
See Section 4(1):
No employer may make to a worker an advance of wages in excess of one month’s wages.
6. Deductions that can be made from your wage in a month cannot exceed one-third of your wage for that month. See Section 5 (7).
7. Your letter of employment must be issued not later than three months of your commencement of work. See Section 7 in its entirety.
8. You can’t be forced to join or quit a trade union or sanctioned for any reason in respect of membership of same.
See Section 9 (6) (a) (b) (i)-(iii):
No contract shall – (a) make it a condition of employment that a worker shall or shall not join a trade union or shall or shall not relinquish membership of a trade union; or
(b) cause the dismissal of, or otherwise prejudice, a worker- (i) by reason of trade union membership, or (ii)because of trade union activities outside working hours or, with the consent of the employer, within working hours, or (iii) by reason of the fact that he has lost or been deprived of membership of a trade union or has refused or been unable to become, or for any other reason is not, a member of a trade union.
9. You have a right to “one or more suitably-spaced” “rest-interval” (described as interruption of work) if you work at least six hours a day, and you don’t have to spend this period on the work site.
See 13 (3-7). See also (5) and (6) for the differences between “rest-interval” and “break in the work.”
10. You are entitled to a holiday (leave) with full pay, after 12 months of continuous employment. Note this, however: you can defer your holiday but you cannot collect money in lieu of your holiday.
See Section 18 (3): It shall be unlawful for an employer to pay wages in lieu of the holiday mentioned in subsection (1) of this section to a worker whose contract has not terminated.
Taiwo Obe is a journalism trainer He heads The Journalism Clinic. He original posted this article to LinkedIn and permitted NewsroomNG to share it here..
