It’s the international Workers’ Day today. As far as many people are concerned, anyone who works in any organization, whether private or government, is a “Worker”. Is this correct?
Legally speaking, No.
We therefore seize today’s opportunity to bring you 5 important things you should know about Nigerian Law and Workers!
Who is a Worker? The Nigerian Labour Act of 1971 (the Act) which, till date, regulates the relationship between an Employer and its workers defines a “Worker” as:
a) “Any person who has entered into or works under a contract with an employer, whether the contract is for manual labour or clerical work or is expressed or implied or oral or written, and whether it is a contract of service or a contract personally to execute any work or labour, but does not include:
b) any person employed otherwise than for the purposes of the employer’s business;
c) persons exercising administrative, executive, technical or professional functions as public officers or otherwise;
d) members of the employer’s family;
e) representatives, agents and commercial travellers in so far as their work is carried out outside the permanent workplace of the employer’s establishment;
f) any person to whom articles or materials are given out to be made up, cleaned, washed, altered, ornamented, finished, repaired or adopted for sale in his own home or on other premises not under the control or management of the person who gave out the article or the material;
g) any person employed in a vessel or aircraft to which the laws regulating merchant shipping or civil aviation apply;”
In simple terms, as long as you are working under a contract of employment with an employer, you are a worker-except you are in any of the categories excluded above.
To give context, a contract of employment is an oral or written agreement by which one person agrees to employ another as a worker and that other person agrees to serve the employer as a worker.
So, a look at the excluded categories in line with the decisions of the Nigerian Courts, shows that the following people are not “workers”:
a. Employees of the government who exercise administrative, executive, technical or professional functions;
b. Employees in private organizations who exercise administrative, executive (e.g Management staff), technical or professional functions, are not workers
c. An employer’s spouse, brother, sister, cousin, uncle, aunt etc is not a worker
d. Sales representatives who move around marketing the employer’s products are not workers as long as their work is carried out outside the employer’s office
e. Airplane pilots and cabin crew are not workers
f. The captain and crew of a ship are not workers
2. If these excluded categories of people are not workers, what are they?
They can be described as “Non-Workers”
Nevertheless, both workers and Non-Workers are still “employees” of the organization or the individual employer.
3. Who then are the “Workers” that the Labour Act applies to?:
The Act applies to people that carry out manual labour or clerical work in a government or private establishment.
4. How does the Labour Act protect these Workers?:
The Act makes several protective provisions such as:
• The employer must give the worker a written contract of employment not more than three months from the date of employment;
• The worker is entitled to annual leave of at least 6 working days after 1 year of continuous employment;
• An employer cannot dictate how a worker spends his/her salary;
• An employer must pay the worker’s salaries in legal tender (in other words, no cryptocurrency payments);
• A salary advance, though not compulsory, cannot exceed one month’s pay and the repayment period must be at least 3 months;
• The employer or the worker who is terminating the employment must give appropriate notice to the other party.
5. Since the Labour Act does not apply to Non-Workers, what regulates the relationship between an employer Non-Workers?:
The employment of those in the excluded categories is regulated by their individual contracts of employment and other laws that apply to all types of employment relationships in Nigeria such as the Pension Reform Act of 2014.
Such contract of employment should set out the specific terms on which the Non-Worker is employed.
The contents of the Labour Act can be used as a guide for these employment contracts but any such inclusion has to be expressly spelt out in the particular contract of employment for it to apply.
Over all, these contracts of employment must be carefully developed in line with the company’s vision and the applicable laws.
Conclusion
We hope this article has brought you some clarity about employment relationships in Nigeria.
If you have further enquiries about how Nigerian law impacts your relationship with your employees or employer, kindly send us an email at contact@sofialegal.ng
In the meantime, happy Workers’ day!