Nigerian employment law has one feature that changes everything else, and most people find out about it too late: the Labour Act does not cover everybody.
Who the Labour Act protects
The Labour Act protects “workers”, and it defines the word narrowly. Section 91 excludes people performing administrative, executive, technical or professional functions. A cleaner, a driver, a factory hand or a shop assistant is a worker under the Act. A manager, an accountant, an engineer or a lawyer is usually not.
If you are outside the Act, your rights come from your contract and from the National Industrial Court, which since 2010 has had the power to apply international labour standards and to rule on unfair labour practice. That makes your written contract the most important document you will sign in Lagos. Read it, and do not sign one that leaves out leave, notice or pay.
Your contract
An employer must give a worker written terms within three months of starting, setting out the pay, the hours, the leave and the notice period. Whatever the Act says, ask for yours on day one.
Pay
The national minimum wage is ₦70,000 a month, under the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024.
What comes off your payslip before you see it:
- Pension, 8% of basic, housing and transport, with your employer adding 10%
- National Housing Fund, 2.5% of basic
- Income tax, paid to the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service
An employer may not make other deductions without your agreement or a legal basis. Check that the pension your payslip says was deducted actually reaches your RSA.
Income tax and the LIRS Your pension and your RSA
Hours
The Act leaves normal hours to the contract or a collective agreement rather than setting a cap. 40 hours a week is the convention. Overtime is paid at the rate in your contract or the agreement - if your contract says nothing about overtime, that is worth raising before you sign.
Annual leave
After twelve months’ continuous service, a worker is entitled to at least 6 working days of paid leave a year under section 18.
That is a statutory floor, and a low one. Most Lagos office jobs offer far more, and the number in your contract is the one that counts. If yours offers only the minimum, that tells you something about the employer.
Sick leave
A worker is entitled to up to 12 working days of paid sick leave a year, certified by a registered medical practitioner, under section 16. Get the certificate; without it the days are not protected.
Maternity
A woman is entitled to 12 weeks of maternity leave under section 54, at not less than half her wages once she has served the minimum period the Act sets. Her employer may not dismiss her for being pregnant or while she is on leave. When she returns, a nursing mother is entitled to time off during the working day to feed her child.
Lagos State’s own public servants get 24 weeks on full pay, and fathers in the state service get 2 weeks of paternity leave. Private employers are not bound by either, and there is no statutory paternity leave for private-sector workers. Many better employers match the state anyway; ask.
Notice
Unless the contract gives more, either side must give notice under section 11:
| Continuous service | Notice |
|---|---|
| Up to three months | One day |
| Three months to two years | One week |
| Two to five years | Two weeks |
| Five years or more | 1 month |
Notice of a week or more must be in writing. Either side may pay wages in lieu instead of working the notice.
Redundancy
When an employer makes workers redundant, the Act requires it to tell the workers’ union or representatives the reasons and the numbers, to apply the principle of last in, first out within each category of worker, and to negotiate redundancy pay. There is no statutory redundancy payment amount; it is what is negotiated or what your contract says.
Safety and injury at work
Your employer pays into the Employee Compensation Scheme, at 1% of payroll, under the Employee Compensation Act 2010. It costs you nothing, and it pays if you are injured at work or become ill because of it. Report any injury in writing, and keep a copy.
If something goes wrong
- Put it in writing to your employer, and keep a copy of everything: contract, payslips, messages.
- Go to your union, if there is one.
- The Federal Ministry of Labour has offices that take complaints from workers under the Act.
- The National Industrial Court hears employment disputes, including from people outside the Labour Act. A lawyer who practises there is worth a consultation before you resign over a dispute.
Do not resign in anger before getting advice. Resigning can give up claims that dismissal would have preserved.