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Legal Nuggets

  1. These are usually mutually agreed upon between the employer and employee and/or the terms of any Collective Agreement between them. It is also usual for the contract of employment of an employee to state that upon the attainment of a particular number of years in the employer’s employ, the employee shall qualify for a certain class of loan such as car or housing.
  2. It is noteworthy that the Companies and Allied Matters Act prohibits loans to Directors unless such loans are meant to meet the expenditure incurred or to be incurred by a Director for the purposes of the company or for the purpose of enabling Director properly perform his duties as an officer of the company.
  3. Further, Section 9 of the National Housing Fund Act provides that an employer who has in his employ an employee earning a basic salary of N3,000 and above per annum shall deduct 2.5% of the monthly salary of the employee as contribution to the National Housing Fund (the Fund). The said sums are remitted to the Federal Mortgage Bank who in turn lends such sums to Mortgage Institutions duly licensed under the Mortgage Institutions Act. An employee who has made contributions to the Fund may apply to any mortgage institution which is a beneficiary of the Fund for a loan to build, purchase or renovate houses.
  4. Nigerian law makes no specific provision relating to Grievance Procedure to settle grievances between the employer and the employee. Mutual and/or Collective Agreements between an employer and an employee often makes provisions for Grievance Procedure. Care should be taken in formulating provisions on Grievance procedure that such provisions accords with the fair hearing principles.
  5. With regards to disciplinary procedure, this is also usually determined by the employer and may be subject to any Collective Agreement between the employer and employee. The Procedure adopted must be such that affords the employee fair hearing.
  6. The National Industrial Court has exclusive jurisdiction over actions bothering on labour and employment relations.