The World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020. As at today the 8^th of April, 2020 the virus had spread to 209 countries and territories with a total recorded cases of 1,498,013 and 87,731 deaths globally. Today, in Nigeria we have 254 confirmed cases with most parts of the country on lock-down and economic activities halted.

The focal point of this article shall be the economic impacts of COVID-19 on employment relationship as it affects job security and income guarantee. In this article, an attempt will be made to look at the provision of the Nigerian Labour laws, global best practices and the measures open to both the organizations as well as the workers.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has projected a 25 million job loss globally depending on the time-frame and for how long the COVID-19 would last. African Nations could be the worst hit due to her lack of preparedness to tackle the pandemic outbreak and the huge population of workers in the informal sector. It has been estimated that Nigeria could loss between $14 billion and $19 billion in oil export revenue in 2020 (The Economic Commission for Africa). The Nigerian stock market has continued on a downward trend with investors losing N399 billion. The Nigerian Airline industry is projected to lose 3.5 million passengers that is about $760 million and a total of 91,380 aviation jobs (IATA).

It is no gain-saying the fact that Nigeria is in a precarious and delicate balance owing largely to its mono-economy status and dependent mostly on oil revenue which has now plummeted in the International market. As we speak the price of oil has fallen to an all-time low of $ 24.21 (WTI) now forcing the Nation to cut her budget benchmark from $ 57 to $ 30 per barrel and slashes capital budget by 20%.

The resultant effects of this would cascade into poor and redundant economic outlook and negative consequences on the well-being of the workers and the citizens at large.

The questions would then be, how would this bleak economic situation affect job security and the income of workers? Does the law in Nigeria provides for income guarantee and job security?

WHAT IS JOB SECURITY?

Job Security is the assurance or probability that an employee will retain his or her job and continue in gainful employment as provided by the employment contract. These assurances are guaranteed by different factors which include companies’ ability to pay, productivity, the contract of employment, collective bargaining agreement, legislation and general economic-condition in a geographical space or country.

Job security would range from very secured, secured, moderately secured and unsecured employment. It will be noted that in Nigeria, the public sector and government institutions and agencies would appear to provide “very secured employment”. Also, organizations with strong union presence provide some moderate security for jobs while businesses with challenges, those that could not continue in production or those that have lost customer-goodwill will be classified as unsecured.

It is important to state here that COVID-19 presents novel challenges for our economy and it will grossly affect both the formal and informal sectors. It should be noted, also, that China is our major economic block supplying over 25% of the country’s import in 2019 in the sum of N 4.3 trillion. Today, China is being affected by COVID-19 in fact COVID -19 originated in Wuhan, China.

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) projected a $ 220 billion in income loss in developing countries. As we speak the United States of America’s unemployment rate has risen to 4.4% meaning that 701,000 jobs have been a loss. If we juxtapose this with Nigeria that has a 23.1% unemployment rate in 2019 with an estimated 87million people living on less than $ 2 per day then the answer should not be far-fetched. To make matters worst it has been projected that an additional 25 million people are likely to join the unemployment market post-COVID-19.

From the foregoing, it will not be immoderate to say that during a period of national emergency and economic turmoil there is “nothing” in absolute terms like job security except the Nation takes a very decisive and proactive measure to curb the fallout and its impact on productivity and the economy as a whole.

Also read: NIGERIAN LABOUR LAW AND WORKERS’INCOME GUARANTEE DURING AN EMERGENCY: COVID-19

The post JOB SECURITY DURING A PERIOD OF NATIONAL EMERGENCY- COVID-19 LOCKDOWN appeared first on Kayode Ibukunoluwa-Micah's Blog.

In Aprofim Engineering Nigeria Limited v Bigouret & Anor (2015) and in the case of Andreas. I. Koumolis v Leventis Motors Limited (1973 SC 250/1971 the arguments had been made that restrictive covenants constitute an affront to section 17 (3) (a) and (e) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) hence, any agreement that is considered as an excessive restraint or unreasonable in nature will not be entertained by the court.
It is therefore important that HR practitioners take note of the following when including a non-compete clause in a contract of employment or when drafting separate restrictive covenants.

1. Such agreement must not be overly broad otherwise it will be difficult to enforce. It must be specific and well defined. It must detail what is to be protected for which the company seeks employees restraint.

2. It should be time-bound. The period of restriction must be reasonable. Some jurisprudence will recommend between six months and one year and anytime beyond this will be view as unreasonable.

3. It must be location specific. Enforceability of restrictive covenant should be within a geographical space within which competition by an ex-employee or employment by a competitor can be said to be injurious to the trade interest of an employer. If it not, then such a restriction will remain unenforceable. The case Mesop Kholopiaan v. Metal Furniture Nigeria Limited, High Court of Lagos, Ikeja Judicial Division delivered on March 5, 1974, is instructive. The company had a non-compete clause which covered a radius of 800 miles from Ikeja and sought for a restraint which was eventually thrown out by the trial judge as unreasonable.

4. It must be industry specific. The intention of a well-drafted restrictive covenant or a non-compete clause is to ensure that information acquired by the staff which is not general knowledge but specific to the organization are not shared with a competitor or used directly by the employee in competition against the employers interest. Therefore, it suffices that when couching such a restrictive agreement that it is industry specific. For example, if a company operating in the hospitality industry, it will be unreasonable to ask for a restraint preventing the staff from taking up an appointment in the banking sector.

5. A non-compete agreement must give due consideration to the interest of the employee during the period of the restrictive agreement. It will amount to an act of wickedness if an ex-employee is asked not to take up employment when he or she is out of employment. In some instances, half the employees salary is paid during the whole length of such restraint.

6. It must be based on a valid contract of employment and legitimate business relationship. You cannot enforce an agreement that is not based on a legitimate business practice or an employment relationship that is outside the ambit of the law. See Illinois Official Report (Supreme Court), in a case involving Reliable Fire Equipment Company v. Arnold Arredondo, 2011 IL 111871. The judgment in, this case, held that Reliable does not have a legitimate business to justify a noncompetition Restrictive Covenant.

7. Lastly, such agreement must not be injurious to the public good. In case, where such acquired information will benefit the general public or nation restraining such an individual from practicing his or her trade elsewhere will likely be considered as unenforceable.

It is important to note that employment relationship or contract is a matter of law subject to legal interpretation; hence, a non-competition restrictive agreement must conform to the provision of the constitution and satisfy the laws or labour Acts to be enforceable.

Continue to: GARDEN LEAVE AND EMPLOYEES BENEFITS IN NONCOMPETITION RESTRICTIVE COVENANTS

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