Nigerian legal system fails to address contract staffing – Kaigama

President of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), Bobboi Kaigama, has declared that the Nigerian legal system has failed to address the issue of contract staffing, thereby leaving employees at the mercy of their employers, unlike what obtains in South Africa, Zimbabwe and other developed countries.

Secretary-General of the TUC, Mohammed Lawal, who represented Kaigama at a the launch of a book titled “Determination of Contract of Employment,” by Barrister Femi Aborisade, at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, made the declaration while speaking on how the legal system needs to be reviewed to be in line with the standard of the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Kaigama said: “Jobs in the country are no longer secure, as employers opt for short-term, flexible employment as part of the strategies to save costs and boost profit”.
On his part, Aborisade said the book was meant to explore the ways in which the law can be used to address problems such as contract employment and the unprecedented level of unemployment in Nigeria.
He expressed concern over increasing disregard for the rule of law by several private-sector employers, noting that violation and open disregard for the law is capable of creating an atmosphere of industrial anarchy and chaos.

He said, “In doing this, I felt it’s necessary to establish the international standard established by the ILO and which is being practiced in countries such as South Africa and Zimbabwe. We are to compare and contrast.

“We discovered that the international standard adopted by the ILO is lacking in the Nigerian judiciary system. In some other African countries, common principles have been jettisoned in favour of the international standard, such as: no employer has the right to sack any employee without following the normal procedures.”

“As I said, the two principle guiding contract employment are applicable in other countries, but they are not applicable in the Nigerian legal system.”

Former Attorney-General of Edo State, who also reviewed the book, Osagie Obayuwana, said employers, particularly in the private sector, were violating progressive laws with impunity as workers are denied the right to organise.