By Chinedu C. Udoakundu, ESQ.

INTRO:

In Nigeria, where employment lies either in the public or private sector, working in the public sector (Government work) appeals more to job seekers as they are often noticed to be engulfed[1] by its inherent benefits like pension/retirement plan, insurance, job stability from malicious layoffs, fair pay, work-life balance and professional development. Most especially, the prevalence of job stability in the public sector explains why financial institutions eagerly grant collateral free loans to employees in the public sector (Government workers). For the financial institution, what is basically required from the government worker/borrower is to present his employment letter and evidence of salaried account thereto. However, with a halt in deposits into the said salaried account due to the borrower’s abrupt removal from employment, his creditors have been plunged into a corporate loan management mess. Obviously, both the debtor/government worker and his creditor (the financial institution) are often frustrated in fathoming the genesis of their ordeal or where they got it wrong.

Meanwhile, in considering the Master-Servant relationship, where servants hold office at the pleasure of the employer; and Employment with statutory flavour, categories of contract of employment, this piece examines whether all “government work” enjoys statutory flavour. Hence, the following issues are herein dealt with judicially,

  1. What is the common denominator of contracts of employment?
  2. Do all government establishments possess an inherent status/potency to offer employment with statutory flavour?
  3. When can it be said that a government employee is in a purely master and servant relationship and what is the attitude of the Court in such a situation?
  4. What governs employment with statutory flavour, what is the nature of employment with statutory flavour and how it is terminated?

Terms and conditions of an employment are the common denominator inherent in any contract of employment because they regulate the employment relationship such as terms of determination, notices, wages and more.

Nweze J.S.C in delivering the lead judgment in Obanye V. UBN[2], opined thus,

“…I endorse the conclusion of the lower court that parties are bound by the terms of their contract, if the conditions for the formation of contract are fulfilled by the parties thereto, they will be bound”

Whereas in a contract with statutory flavour, conditions for appointment and termination of the contract are governed and protected by an enabling statute enacted by the State or National Assembly, such contract can only be terminated in the manner prescribed by the very statute that created the said terms and conditions. In Comptroller-General of Customs V. Gusau[3]  Kekere-Ekun, J.S.C rationed that

“An employment enjoys statutory flavour when the contract of service is governed by statute or where the conditions of service are contained in regulations derived from statutory provisions. In the circumstance they invest the employee with a legal status higher than the ordinary master and servant relationship.”

As was further held in Bamboye V. University of Ilorin[4], that anywhere the layoff/removal contravenes such statute, the employee may be reinstated.

Unlike for an employment in a master and servant relationship, the employer has unfettered right to terminate the employment as long as he complies with the terms and conditions agreed to in the agreement signed by both parties. Otherwise, the employee’s remedy includes damages, arrears of salaries, salaries in lieu of notice and terminal benefits (if any), but certainly he cannot be reinstated. This is because according to a plethora of decided cases, no servant should be imposed on an unwilling master even where the master’s behaviour is wrong.[5]

Therefore, it is deduced from rations and decisions in Comptroller-General of Customs V. Gusau (SUPRA) and as seen in Adedeji v. CBN[6], that it is not enough that the person works with the government. In Adedeji v. CBN (SUPRA), the Court in upholding the lower court’s dismissal of the Appellants’ case, held that the appellants’ employment with the respondent is not covered by statutory flavour and being purely a Master and servant relationship, it considered that the CBN Staff Manual drawn up by Board of  Directors of the CBN as that which governs employments therein is not an enactment of parliament (State or National Assembly), and that by CBN’s status, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) does not take employment directives from the Federal Government (FG) let alone for the FG to stipulate terms and conditions of contract of employment in the CBN through a federal enactment. The Court did not reinstate the Appellants relying on the principles that no servant should be imposed on an unwilling master.

In essence, since the relationship between CBN (a government establishment) and her employees is purely a master and servant relationship, then lawyers before tailoring the claimant’s pleadings towards wrongful termination of employment with statutory flavour and asking for reinstatement must first be certain as follows,

  1. The operational status of the government establishment is such that it takes directives from either the State or Federal government,
  2. The State or Federal government by its parliament made an enactment (statute) stipulating terms and conditions of contract of employment in that government establishment, and
  3. That the claimant’s employment is found within the contemplation and meaning of the said statute, that is, the extent to which his employment at the time of his removal is protected by the said Status.

Also, loan houses should not be quick to offer collateral free loans to persons in “government work” without adhering to their in-house counsel’s advice regarding the concerns above enumerated. They may demand, obtain a copy of and study the statute stipulating the terms and conditions under which the prospective borrower is employed.

CHINEDU C. UDOAKUNDU, ESQ..08187780666, c.c.udoakundu.attorney@gmail.com

[1] Despite its disadvantages such as  limited or fixed remuneration/salary, bureaucracy, slow job growth, slow to change, seniority prioritized over ability and political influence.

[2] (2018)17 NWLR (PT.1648)375 pg.389 D-E

[3] (2017)18 NWLR (PT.1598)353; pg 390 paras.C-D

[4] (1999)10 NWLR (PT.622)290

[5] Chukwumah v. SPDC (1993)4 NWLR (PT.289)512, 560; NEPA v. Isieveore (1997)7 NWLR (PT.511)135.

[6] (2023)5 NWLR (PT.1878)417

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