Judge tasks labour ministry on periodic auditing

Justice Benedict Kanyip of National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) has charged the Federal Ministry of Labour to carry out periodic auditing of employers.

He also admonished lawyers to make use of industrial court judgment in their citation and human resources to familiarise with the rights of the employee in accordance with the labour law.

He made the charge while delivering lecture on employment law seminar organised by Perchstone & Graeys with the theme: “The changing face of Nigerian Labour Law Jurisprudence and what employer of labour need to know”.

According to him, labour law is about employment rule, adding that the labour law is in crisis. A quiet revolution, he said, is currently going on at the National Industrial Court,as it suffers indignation.

“The increasing visibility of the National Industrial Court as the developer of labour law jurisprudence that we may find typified the changing face of Nigerian labour law jurisprudence, and hence all that employers may need to know. A good deal of the cases that the NIC has to grapple with on a daily basis would not have been necessary if labour standards auditing of employers were to be carried out periodically by the Federal Ministry of Labour and the applicable conditions of service vetted.

“After reviewing foreign cases, I am persuaded by the force of this UK case law authorities that in appropriate cases there is an implied term in contracts of employment imposing duty on the employer to provide work reference in respect of its employee, whether former or existing.

“Employers in Nigeria must note that in general there is now an implied term in contracts of employment imposing a duty on the employer to provide work/employment reference in respect of employees; and the work/employment reference must be true, accurate, fair and not misleading. Anything short of this could result in the employer being liable either in contract or in tort, “ he stated

Also, Professor of law, University of Lagos, Chioma Agomo in her discussion talked about gender issues in the workplace noting that employers should have sexual harassment policy and make it in such a way it conforms with international best practice.