THE CRIMINAL LAW OF LAGOS STATE 2011

It is, however, important to states that the Lagos State Government has classified Sexual Harassment as an offence within its jurisdiction. If you live and work in Lagos, note that sexual harassment is an offence.
Chapter 25, Section 262 of the Criminal Law of Lagos States 2011 states in subsection (1) that:
Any person who sexually harassed another is guilty of a felony and is liable to imprisonment for three years.
Subsection 2 of Section 262, defines Sexual harassment as unwelcome sexual advances, request for sexual favours, and other visual, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature which when submitted to or rejected-

1. Implicitly or explicitly affects a persons employment or unreasonably interferes with the persons work or educational performance;

2. Implicitly or explicitly suggests that submission to or rejection of the conduct will be a factor in academic or employment decisions; or

3. Creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive learning or working environment.
Section 264 of the law addresses the issue of consent when it states in subsection (1) that
For the purpose of this chapter, a person consents if he agrees by choice and has the freedom and capacity to make and communicate that choice

NATIONAL DIMENSION OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AS AN OFFENCE UNDER THE NIGERIAN LAW

By implication, The National Industrial Court of Nigeria, in a recent review of its procedure, implicitly and explicitly states that the court can be approached on issue bothering on sexual harassment at workplace.
For instance, a look at order 14 of the Civil Procedure rules, 2017 provides that an action in which an employee claims sexual harassment at workplace should spell out whether the act is any of the following
1. Physical conduct of a sexual nature
2. A verbal form of sexual harassment
3. A non-verbal form of sexual harassment
4. Quid pro quo harassment where an owner, employer, superior, member of management or co-employee undertakes or attempts to influence or influences the process of employment, training, discipline, dismissal, salary increments, or other benefits of an employee or job applicant in exchange for a sexual favour.
Because workplace sexual harassment is a global menace and a scourge various countries have passed laws and legislation to either criminalized it or tackle it as an unacceptable social nuisance.

United States of American
As far back as in 1964, Title V11 of the United States Civil Rights Act expressly condemns discrimination and sexual harassment likewise is the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

United Kingdom
The United Kingdom has the Sex Discrimination Act (SDA) and the Equality Act 2010 directed against the act of unwelcome sexual advances at a workplace.

Germany
The German General Equal Treatment Act, stresses that a repeated offender of sexual harassment should be terminated from employment having carried out a proper investigation.

Latin America Countries
In Brazil, Mexico and other Latin American countries sexual harassment is viewed seriously. For example, a law was enacted in Mexico 2012 that places fines and levies ranging from $ 1000 to $ 20,000 on employers who tolerate the act of sexual harassment in their organizations.

AFRICAN COUNTRIES
Excepts for few countries in Africa where sexual harassment is treated as a criminal act most of the countries still dont handle it with the seriousness that it deserves. The African perception of the role of women in general and to a large extent our cultural and religious leaning are major obstacles working against the criminalization of sexual harassment at an offence at the workplace.

Continue to:-
EFFECTS OF WORKPLACE SEXUAL HARASSMENT

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This article is aimed at pointing out the usefulness of outsourcing to todays business, helping business leaders and HR practitioners, in particular, to understand this concept and its relevance in staffing their organizations while working within the ambit of acceptable and global prescriptions.
Across the world, governments and corporate giants have continued to engage in one level of outsourcing or the others, business processes have been moved from one country to another, this has been largely witnessed in manufacturing, information technology, engineering, and even in call centers operations. Outsourcing has been with us right from the beginning of management profession even when we did not recognize it as such.
However, this is not to say that there are no abuses here and there particularly in view of the lack of regulatory frameworks and the loopholes in National laws, by and large, when carried out with some of the guidelines that will be championed in this article; it could be a veritable tools for generating employment, cutting down on cost, supporting specialization, promoting national productivity and organizational development.

ORIGIN OF OUTSOURCING

The industrial revolution which began in Britain in late 1700s brought about a shift from a society that was largely agrarian to what is today known as industrialization; it was a revolution that brought about prosperity and opens up mass production, design of high capacity machinery, building of factories and the subsequent need for sourcing of raw materials and exportation of goods and services beyond England.
During the 18th and 19th centuries Britain enjoyed a stable political system and its expansionist strategies extended to colonized territories and with the advantage of its large deposit of coal and iron ore, she was able to expand her industrial base and took maximum benefit to develop infrastructure, build factories, developed the steam engine, promotes the development of the textile industry and subsequently her export market.
Although Britain enacted laws to prevent the export of its technology and skilled workers to other countries, however, by the 19th-century industrialization had spread to other countries such as Belgium, Germany, France and other European Nations. And, the United States of America by the early 20th century had become the number one industrialized Nation in the world.

The spread of industrialization opens the world to international trade and globalization: businesses expanding their markets and products-reach to other territories. And, because no business is self-sufficient, the late 1980s and early 90s business focus started changing; paying attention to cost reduction strategy and concentrating more attention to what is known as core or critical business thereby necessitating what is today known as outsourcing and off shoring.
In tracing the origin of outsourcing, Rob Handfield, in his publication of June 01, 2006

Brief History of Outsourcing states:

Outsourcing was not formally identified as a business strategy until 1989 (Mullin, 1996). However, most organizations were not totally self-sufficient; they outsourced those functions for which they had no competency internally. Publishers, for example, have often purchased composition, printing, and fulfillment services. The use of external suppliers for these essential but ancillary services might be termed the baseline stage in the evolution of outsourcing. Outsourcing support services are the next stage. In the 1990s, as organizations began to focus more on cost-saving measures, they started to outsource those functions necessary to run a company but not related specifically to the core business. Managers contracted with emerging service companies to deliver accounting, human resources, data processing, internal mail distribution, security, plant maintenance, and the like as a matter of good housekeeping. Outsourcing components to affect cost savings in key functions is yet another stage as managers seek to improve their finances.
From the foregoing, it could be seen that outsourcing is a modern day business practice aimed at better and improved delivery and not the exploitative tendencies with which she is wrongly accused of.

WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN OUTSOURCING AND CASUALIZATION?

For the sake of clarity, I will like to start by looking at what is a standard employment relationship, according to the International Labour Organization (ILO), a standard employment relationship is one where workers are employed under an employment contract for an indefinite period.
From the above definition, we can deduce some basic elements of Standard Employment Relationship as:

1. Full-time work.
For an employment relationship to be defined as standard employment it must be on a full-time basis and not part-time. This means that the contract of employment must specify that it is a full-time job. Mind you such working relationships that are fixed-term in nature are not necessarily inappropriate but would meet the test of standard employment.

2. It involves an employer and an employee
A standard employment relationship should exist between two parties, namely the employer and the employee or worker. It means that a contract of employment should states in clear term who is the employer to whom the employee is engaged. A situation where an employee is contracted to multiple employers would and cannot be described as a standard employment. The standard practice is for the employee to enter into a contract with either the outsourcing firm or with the firm to which he or she is outsourced to.

3. It must be under a contract ( Offer and Acceptance), written or implied
One fundamental character of a standard employment relationship is the presence of a contract of employment. Such contract may be written or implied. Preferably, it should be written and contains the basic elements of the employers name, terms of employment, remuneration, the location of work and so on.

4. Unlimited in Scope as against fixed-term
A standard employment relationship according to the ILO convention must be unlimited in scope. This means that it is not part-time neither is it fixed term. It is not a contract of service but employment.

5. Single employer
Another distinguishing element of a standard employment relationship is the presence of a single employer. An employee cannot be said to be a justifiable employment having more than one employer.

6. Protected against unjustified dismissal and other forms of discrimination
In all, the intention of the ILO Convention on employment practices is to protect the employee against discriminatory tendencies and unjust treatment by the employer. It is believed that once the above measures are in place the workers right will be protected.
If the above conditions are met we can rightly say that the employment relationship is appropriate and standard. Contrasting this however with casualization and this will help us to properly delineate the boundary between precarious employment practices and the position of outsourcing as a global employment practice.

WHAT IS CASUALIZATION OR CONTRACTUALIZATION?

Casualization or contractualization is the practice of hiring temporary, seasonal and fixed term contract workers. It is a practice through which employment shifts from a preponderance of full time and permanent positions to higher levels of casual positions
The International Labour Organization, ILO (2007) defines casuals as workers who have an explicit or implicit contract of employment which is not expected to continue for more than a short period, whose duration is to be determined by national circumstances.
However, in the words of ODonnell (2004), — legally, a casual employee is seen as a worker engaged for a period less than six months and who is paid at the end of each day
In the United States of America and Europe casualization is refer to as Non-Standard Work Arrangement (NSWA). It has also been classified as a precarious employment, a relatively new term that is used to describe a whole range of employment conditions that are not standard or seen as a regular employment arrangement.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CASUALIZATION

• Non-written employment contract or implied after the statutory probationary period
• Termination of employment with little or no prior notice
• Irregular work hours or intermittent work schedule
• Lower wages compared to regular workers in the same organization
• Income risks due to unstable or uncertainty of payment
• Short duration or instability of contract
• Denial of non-wage benefits which regular employees of the organization enjoy
• Exposure to health risk
• Denial of membership of a union if it is the practice in the company or industry

WHAT IS OUTSOURCING?

Outsourcing is a location neutral business process in which noncore business operation is contracted to specialized and skilled persons or organization to handle on behalf of another business entity.
According to the Business Dictionary, outsourcing is defined as The contracting or subcontracting of non-core business activities to free up cash, personnel, time, and facilities for activities in which a company holds a competitive advantage. Companies having strengths in other areas may contract out data processing, legal, manufacturing, marketing, payroll, accounting or other aspects of the businesses to concentrate on what they do best and thus reduce average unit cost. Outsourcing is often an integral part of downsizing or re-engineering, also, called contracting out.

According to Deloitte, In its simplest term, outsourcing is the contracting out of a business function to an external supplier, involving the transfer of people, processes, and assets. This contracting out can be undertaken at either an on-shore, or off-shore location, and to one (single-sourced) or more (multi-sourced) outsourcing partners.
There are two broad classifications of outsourcing business around the world, namely:

• Business Process Outsourcing ( BPO)
Under the business process outsourcing is human resources management functions outsourcing, finance, accounting, procurement, back office function outsourcing, and customer services and so on. This will also include claim processing services as seen in the insurance Industry and mortgaging processing for banks. Business process outsourcing is gaining ground across the world and Nigeria inclusive.

• Information Technology Outsourcing ( ITO)
Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) is a well-established practice across the globe due to specialization, availability of skilled labor in some countries and the present of facilities to support delivery of services such as programming, web design, cloud technology and other specialized IT functions.

WHY ORGANIZATIONS DO OUTSOURCED PARTS OF THEIR OPERATIONS?

• The need to concentrate on core business and deploy scare resources to critical areas of the companys operations.
• Short term contracts or operations that are seasonal in nature. An organization who has been given a responsibility to manage a project for a short period of time may not necessarily consider it as economical to employee full term staff in addition to their regular workforce.
• It is an opportunity to develop small and medium scale enterprises and create employment. This is one point in addition to others, which the Association of Outsourcing Practitioners of Nigeria (AOPN) led by Dr. Austin Nweze has strongly supported.
• Outsourcing is a tool for innovation and creativity. It gives an organization second perspective to issues.
• Outsourcing is a dictate of modern market economy and globalization. For example, offshoring that is the relocation of a business process from one country to another is now an acceptable business practice hence the need to also embrace it in Nigeria.
• It is seen as a cost saving system. According to, Tom Murcko, Outsourcing will continue to grow in popularity over the long term. As transaction costs approach (but never reach) zero, every entity benefits by focusing on their core competencies; that is, whatever they do relatively best. This is analogous to countries which are trading partners and import and export goods based on which is cheaper or expensive for them on a relative basis.
• It provides specialization and promotes competitive advantage. According to the 4th richest man in the United Kingdom, Sir. Richard Branson, everything in your business can be outsourced if youre not emotionally attached to doing it all.

HOW TO RUN OUTSOURCING AS A LEGALLY DEFENSIBLE BUSINESS

In the forward to the Deloitte publication, titled: The Outsourcing Handbook, A Guide to Outsourcing, Version 2.0, an insightful opening was made, and I quote Love it or loathe it, outsourcing is now a permanent feature of business life. As companies search for cheaper and more effective ways of working, handing over non-core functions to lower cost specialists can be an alluring prospect.
While the above statement is true and undisputable, the questions that should trigger our interest are what is the standard practice in outsourcing business or services? Legitimate businesses are regulated by law whether international, national or local. Because businesses are governed by relevant laws then it means that outsourcing business must operate within the confines of the law.

KEY CONSIDERATIONS IN RECRUITMENT OUTSOURCING OR MANAGED SERVICES

1. Proper business registration and documentation: Any outsourcing business that must be reckoned with and considered a proper business must be registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, (CAC) and certified by the Ministry of Labour and Productivity. The minimum should be a business name registration or enterprise. It is instructive, to note, the provision of section 71 (1) of the Nigerian Labour Acts No person shall establish or operate a fee-charging agency save with the written consent of the Minister
Further down, section 71 (3) explained Fee charging agency to mean a) an agency or any person who acts as an intermediary for the purpose of procuring employment for a worker to an employer with a view to deriving or either directly or indirectly any pecuniary or other material advantage from either employer or worker.

2. Business Plan: Outsourcing derives its strength from reputation, ability to cut down on cost and render services promptly and all these require proper planning and should not be left to chances. If you must be successful in the outsourcing business you must be an organization of diligence and attention to details. In crafting your plan the major consideration should be your legacy and stability plan.

3. Infrastructure and Technological Requirements: Until you become the Accenture, Infosys, CBRE, Kelly outsourcing, or Philips Consults of this world you dont need big or an expensive office all you need is a presentable and well-managed office. You will need a location or an office and basic technologies such as computer system, well-designed website, record and information management system. If you are not on the ground you cannot be said to exist.

4. Qualified Personnel: Having managed business functions for leading brands such as Samsung Electronics West Africa, West Africa Tobacco Company, LOreal West African, Deekay Group, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC) I can boldly say that outsourcing is largely a specialized service business that requires the employment of qualified and highly competent personnel.

5. Reporting and Communication System: Information management and readiness to communicate accurately and promptly is another key consideration in outsourcing management. Good front and back office are needed to function effectively and to commands the confidence and trust of your clients.

6. A decision on your niche and market: Outsourcing is gaining greater attention day-in-day-out across the world and the scope is widening as more demands to satisfy the customer and reduce the cost of doing business is seen as a priority by organizations. You cannot play in every market; hence, you need to be circumspect and focus on the area of outsourcing where your expertise can be well served.

KEY CONSIDERATION WHEN SELECTING AN OUTSOURCING PROVIDER
• Check for approval to provide outsourcing services. This can be in the form of the companys certificate of incorporation.
• Meet or engage with the outsourcing company and ask relevant questions
• Ask for references from companies that such services have been rendered to by the service provider
• Ask for demonstration on the processes and deliverable
• Ensure that your expectations and pledges of services are well documented
• Have a contract in place with an exit clause when they are unable to meet up with the agreed service covenant having considered all constraining factors
• Meet at interval to review performance level and standard

DARACH ASSOCIATE AND MARKETING CONSULTING NIGERIA LIMITED, ITS BRAND OF OUTSOURCING AND BUSINESS PROCESS SERVICES

With a management team of HR, Sales and Marketing communication experts and experienced in providing managed services for both local and international organizations, Darach Associate is one organization that we can boldly recommend to organizations. Darach Associate has outsourced and managed over 250 personnel. They have successfully launched products and ensure that businesses succeed. With tested tools and constantly reinvented processes, I will recommend Darach Associate as a business partner to manage your outsourced services.
See details @ www.darachassociate.com

CONCLUSION

Efforts have been made in this write-up to highlight the value of outsourcing to organizations-big or small, to those who will like to pursue an outsourcing business and to the Nation at large in terms of its contribution to the promotion of business practices, cost reduction, specialization, and employment generation. It has been copiously demonstrated that outsourcing is a global practice and should not in any way be equated with “precarious employment relationship”, casualization or contractualization.
It is interesting to note that an outsourcing policy bills written by the Director General of the Nigeria Technology Development Agency (NITDA) in collaboration with the Association of Outsourcing Practitioners of Nigeria (AOPN) is presently before the National Assembly, this goes further to show that Nigeria is now ready to set the framework for the management and regulations of outsourcing businesses.

To drive the value of outsourcing home, I will like us to take a tour of ISS Group, an outsourcing company who for the second year consecutively has been ranked number one outsourcing company in the world by The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP).
• Founded in Copenhagen (Denmark) in 1901
• ISS offers services that include cleaning, catering, security, property and support services and HR
• It has a staff strength that is in excess of 527,199 in more than 74 countries of the world
• Its global revenue in 2016 was DKK 70.2 billion at the rate of 6.9823 Danish Krone to 1 US Dollar
I believe the above is a strong proof that if properly managed and regulated outsourcing should be a strong tool for National development and GDP expansion.
In the final analysis, let us considered the words of Tom Murcko, Because entrepreneurs typically operate on a shoestring budget, they must learn to benefit from resources that they dont directly control. This is done primarily by outsourcing any needs which are temporary or fluctuating, which require specialized skills that arent the core focus of the business.

About the writer

Kayode Ibukunoluwa-Micah is the CEO and Principal Consultant of Darach Associate and Marketing Consulting Nigeria Limited; he has consulted extensively for organizations both in Nigeria. He is the business partner of the International Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Institute and a Certified International Training Professional to the American Certification Institute, Lewes Delaware, USA. His firm is business partners with Deekay Group the brand owners of Nexus Home Appliances. On the list of organization that he had rendered outsourcing support services are Samsung Electronics West Africa (SEWA), West African Tobacco Company, Loreal West Africa Limited, FMCG Distribution Company, Medvac Pharmaceutical Company Limited and so on.
Kayode holds a master degree in managerial psychology with 19 years post qualification work experience.
Kayode can be contacted for your internal training exercise and outsourcing related functions at askkayodemicah@gmail.com or via his twitter handle @kayodemicah.
REFERENCES
Business Dictionary ( www.businessdictionary.com/definition/outsourcing/html
Deloitte The Outsourcing Handbook: A Guide to Outsourcing. Version 2.0
Dr. Austin Nwaze, President Association of Outsourcing Practitioners of Nigeria (AOPN)
International Labour Organization ILO (2007)
Michael Evans, Contribution to Forbes Magazine ( www.forbes.com/sites
Nigerian Labour Acts Part 11, Section 23, 24 and 25 and Part 111 section 71
Prince Okafor (2017) Outsourcing can Generate More Jobs in Nigeria Vanguard Newspaper, June 1, 2017
Rob Handfield (2006) A Brief History of Outsourcing
The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals
Tom Murcko, Notable Quotable, www.businessdictionary.com/definition/outsourcing/html www.issworld.com/press/news/2014/06/03
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It is important to states right from the outset that paid annual leave is a statutory provision that employees are entitled to as provided for by the Nigerian Labour Acts 1990 and other amendments. Section 18, subsection 1 of the Labour Act, states clearly Every worker shall be entitled after twelve months continuous service to a holiday with full pay of

a) At least six working days, or

b) In the case of a person under the age of sixteen years (including apprentices), at least twelve working days.

From the above citation, it is clear that annual leave is statutory and backed by law. However, the critical issues with most people hinges on its implementation, numbers of days that an employee should be entitled to, the minimum amount to be paid as leave allowance and the procedure to be followed in its implementation. Also, one contending issue is the misinterpretation of the word holiday in the provision of the act

Also for the purpose of clarity, the word holiday means leave or vacation or the period for which the employee is permitted off duties for the purpose of utilizing his or her leave earnings. This becomes important because leave is different from approved public holidays which are not and should not be included when computing the leave entitlement period.

For example, if an employees leave is twelve working days and there are approved public holidays say two days that fall within the approved leave period of twelve days, it then automatically means that the employee will earn his or her twelve days plus the two days of public holidays thereby making fourteen working days.

In this write-up, I will make effort to address all the highlighted issues and give clarifications to the annual leave imbroglio.

WHAT IS ANNUAL LEAVE?

According to Wikipedia, Annual leave is paid time off work granted by employers to employees to be used for whatever the employee wishes The crucial elements of this definition are:

1) Annual. This means that it is an entitlement that is qualified for after a one-year continuous service or employment. It is an accumulated paid off duties vacation that an employee is qualified for after a one year or yearly service in an organization.

2) Annual Leave Allowance. Annual leave comes with pay. This means that employers are to pay their employee for the annual leave earning period or days. Does it mean that the employee earns an extra allowance other than his or her regular monthly income? The answer is yes. The employee is not only paid his or her full salary by month end but they are paid for the numbers of days for which they are entitled to leave.

3) Off Work. During the period of annual leave, an employee stays off work and is liberty to use his leave for whatsoever purpose that is best to him. It could be used for rest, personal development, travels/vacation or private endeavors.

4) It is given or granted by the employer. This means that there is an application and approval requirement for annual leave to be granted. It is must be done by the worker’s supervisor after operational needs must have been taken into cognizance. The fact that an employee attends twelve months of continuous does not automatically mean that he or she would take the annual leave automatically. It is must be properly scheduled in such a way that the companys operations does not suffers. And this does not also means that it should be denied or prolonged unnecessarily. It is must be planned and adequately structured by HR and the staff involved.

Section 18, subsection 2, of the Nigerian Labour Act is very clear on this and its states:
The holiday mentioned in subsection (1) of this section may be deferred by agreement between the employer and the worker: Provided that the holiday-earning period shall not thereby be increased beyond twenty-four months continuous service.
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AN EMPLOYEE CEASES FROM EMPLOYMENT BEFORE ATTAINING TWELVE MONTHS OF CONTINUOUS SERVICE?
We sometimes have justification why an employee cannot continue in service beyond a period of time and such reasons will include: redundancy, termination of appointment, incapacitation and others. In such situation what does the act says?
Section 18, Subsection 4 states that Aperson who ceases to be employed after having
Completed-
(a) Less than twelve but not less than six months in the continuous employment of an employer; or
(b) Not less than six months in the continuous employment of an employer since last qualified for a holiday under subsection (1) of this section,
shall be paid with respect to that period of employment an amount bearing the same proportion to full part for one week at his normal rate as that period bears to twelve months.
The standard practice is to pay an employee who has served up to six months on prorated basis which is a proportion of his leave entitlement had he or she completed twelve months of continuous service.
For example
If A is entitled to an annual leave allowance of N 35,000 for a leave period of 20 working days per annual, if he resigned his appointment seven (7) months or after his last leave, his terminal benefits would include the unearned period of his leave.
Prorated unearned Leave Allowance: N 35,000 * 7 / 12 = 20,416.67.67
IS IT WITHIN THE AMBIT OF THE LAW TO PAY LEAVE ENCASHMENT
Leave encashment for terminated staff is supported by the Nigerian Labour Act, but section 18, subsection 3, made it illegal and contravention of the law to pay those still in employment money in lieu of their annual vacation or leave.
It shall be unlawful for an employer to pay wages in lieu of the holiday mentioned in subsection (1) of this section to a worker whose contract has not terminated.

WHY SHOULD EMPLOYEE GO ON ANNUAL LEAVE

It is fashionable for young employees and those who have urgent needs for cash to want to demand for payment in lieu of notice without a properly understanding of the benefits of time off from regular day-to-day activity.
• The Need for Rest
The human body requires a significant amount of rest to enable it rejuvenate itself for better performance, and it will be unfair to treat the body as an unserviceable machine that would finally break down under pressure. So, from medical point of view it is important to take some times off work for rest and other activities.
• The Need to Gain New Perspectives
The question has been asked that about what the employee do with their leave vacation, the important answer is whatever they do during this time is good for their mind , understanding of their environment and self. When you are free from a monotonous daily routine, your senses and mind tends to perceives and process information differently.
• The Need to Correct Negative Impressions
Annual Leave holiday helps the organization erased the misconception of without-me the organization cannot survived mind-set. My experience in organizational change and re-engineering shows that most HR or entrepreneur unconsciously creates the impression in the mind s of their staff that they (employees) are indispensable when they refused to allow them take some days off. It is good for the health of the organization that staffers are allowed to take their leave.
• The Need to Portray the Organization as a Responsible Corporate Citizen
Enhancement of companys image. Corporate image-building are deliberate actions aimed at portraying the organization as a responsible corporate person. Good image is seen as a competitive edge and attracts the best hands to the organization. Good hands would like to take job roles in organizations that obey the laws and protect their interest including vacation.
• The Need to Develop Leaders from within the Organization
When staff precedes on leave other people or an immediate subordinate is given opportunity to act as a reliever in the place of the worker on leave. This arrangement has often brought out the best from such subordinates who show leadership and bring new ideas on board. When you give people the opportunities to act most of the time its brings out the best in them.
WHAT IS THE MANDATORY NUMBERS OF DAYS THAT WORKERS ARE ENTITLED TO AS THEIR LEAVE VACATION?
Section 18, gave an insight to this, it explains that the minimum leave earning period shall be 6 working days while in the case of persons under the age of 12 including apprentices it shall be twelve working days of paid leave.
Citation below:
Section 18, subsection 1 Every worker shall be entitled after twelve months continuous service to a holiday with full pay of
(a) at least six working days; or
(b) in the case of persons under the age of sixteen years (including apprentices), at least twelve working days.
However, by practice and agreement, major adjustment is made to this as we have junior workers who earn as much as two weeks to as much as 20 days and above. This is particularly so in the oil sector where the union and management have collectively agreed on condition of service.
The Act allows for such flexibility and negotiation as can be seen in section 18, subsection 2 which states as follows
The holiday mentioned in subsection (1) of this section may be deferred by agreement between the employer and the worker
It is however, appropriate to correct the erroneous impression which some hold onto which can be seen in the workmen Compensation Act. Let us look at that section Subject to the workmen Compensation Act, a worker shall be entitled to be paid wage up to twelve working days in any one calendar years during absence from work caused by temporary illness certified by a registered medical practitioner. Nigerian Labour Act, 1990 Section 16.
It is also clear from the foregoing that the reference to twelve days is for health or sickness related off work payment as against annual leave or vacation pay.
SO WHAT IS THE PRACTICE?
The honest truth about days and leave entitlement period is dependent on conditions of service or contract of employment, agreement reached with the employee (Non-Discriminating standard practice in the organization), collective agreement and industry practice.
Section 7, subsection 1 (g) provides that holiday and holiday pay should form part of employment contract or condition of service that should be in written form and given to the employee not later than six months of his or her appointment.
Its stated that
(g) any terms and conditions relating to-
(i) hours of work, or
(ii) holidays and holiday pay, or
(iii) incapacity for work due to sickness or injury, including any provisions for sick pay; €¦
Must be stated in written, so leave entitlement days and payment should be agreed upon at the point when the employment agreement is being negotiated and contracted

S/N COUNTRIES ANNUEL LEAVE ENTITLEMENT ( BY NUMBERS OF DAYS)
1 Angola Workers are entitled to 22 working days per year, excluding weekends and approved rest days and public holidays.

2 Algeria Calculated on the basis of 2 and ½ days per month, but the total numbers of the days cannot exceed 30 calendar days per year.

3 Argentina 14 calendar days from 0-5 years
21 Calendar days from 5 to 10 years
28 calendar days from 10 to 20 years
35 calendar days from 20 and above

4 Benin Republic 2 working days per month of effective service. The law in Benin however, states that unless there is a favourable provisions in collective agreements or contract of employment the above condition shall suffice.

5 Brazil The length of annual leave is dependent on the numbers of absence from work by the employee.
30 days when the worker was absence from work for more than 5 days. 24 days when absence between 6 to 14 days, 18 days of leave when absence between 5 to 23 days and 12 days when absence between 24 to 32 days.

6 Burkina Faso 2 ½ ( Two and half days) per month spent in the service of the employer for a continuous one year of employment.

7 Kenya Employees are entitled to not less than 21 working days after twelve consecutive month of active service with the employer
10 South Korea 15 days for workers who have worked up to a period of three years, one day will thereafter be added to every one year continuously worked but not more than 25 days of leave.

11 United States of American There is no law in the United States that require employers to provide paid vacation or annual leave to its employees. Employers are at liberty to offer their employees paid leave. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, an average of 10 days paid leave is offer by private employers. It is however, not mandatory by law.

12 Uruguay Public and private sector workers are entitled to a minimum of 20days of annual leave.

13 United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, employees are entitled to 5.6 weeks annual leave that is 28 days of paid leave in addition to the 8 days of public and banks holidays which are not paid for. It is of equal importance to say that leave period is often associated with the number of years in service to a maximum of 30 days per year
A look at the cross countries evaluation shows that leave earning periods are mostly provided for by law except in the United States where is not prescribed by law but it is being observed by most organizations. It is however important to states that in all countries x-rated here, workers are entitled to both annual leaves and approved public holidays that are exclusive of annual leave.
Also, I believe we can learn from some of the countries and enriches our practice as a nation. In some countries leave entitlements are accumulated and it ultimately accrued to the workers. While in some jurisprudence it is related to efficient performance for the period of a year.
The impression of just waiting to earn leave even while no meaningful value has been added by employees in the course of the year could be eliminated and then gradually build in the Nigerian workforce a culture of value for money.
CAN SICK LEAVE BE ANNUAL LEAVE DEDUCTIBLE?
Annual leave is different from sick leave and they dont in any way affect the length of each other. So the practice where the annual leave of a staff is deducted from the numbers of days spent in attending to ill-health is illegal and against the law.

PROCEDURE FOR GRANTING ANNUAL LEAVE

Procedurally, the employee is expected to make a formal request for annual leave on or before the completion of one year of continuous service.

This application should be made through his or her immediate supervisor; who will endorse same and send it to HR. The reason for this is to ensure that operation is not affected negatively due to the shortage of manpower necessitated by absence from work by the worker.

It is not right for HR to haphazardly grant leave approval without the line managers or supervisors approval. I have seen this create unnecessary bickering in most organizations.

HR should give a formal approval in writing stating the start date of the leave and when the staff should report back to work.

Also, the approved letter should be copied to the line manager or direct supervisor and the Finance and Account department for the processing of the annual leave allowance.

Application and approval letter should be kept in both personal files of the worker and the personnel or HR file.

It is important to note that proper documentation should be done because during staffs annual leave vacations they still remain in the employment of the company and you have the duty of care over them.

It is important to ask an employee in the application form where they will be spending their leave and if they will be traveling outside their state of cities of work. This will enable HR to relate with them in case of emergencies or operational exigencies. For example, when I worked for an industrial catering company in Rivers State in Nigeria, we got a contract with the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company and it was necessary that we mobilized to site all most immediately, we would put the best hands together because of the short notice is given to us. This necessitated the recall of our most senior Chef from his annual leave vacation. Imagine if there was no contact how difficult it would have been for us.

It is appropriate to call the worker a week before resumption and intelligently remind him or her of the resumption date. We have cases where the employee picked up another appointment without recourse to present employer. Such knowledge will allow HR plan adequately for a replacement or put a hold on other staff leave pending when such replacement was found.

HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING AND ANNUAL LEAVE SCHEDULING

Scheduling staff leaves and vacations require adequate and careful planning more so as most staff will fall due on the anniversary of their employment. In a situation, where people started a new operation on the same day, if they all asked for leave on the anniversary of their employment it means a total collapse of operation.

My suggestion is for HR and line managers to plan ahead of time by properly scheduling workers leave for different months and time without exceeding the 24 months deferment time frame.

The standard practice is to design a Leave Roster which is sent to the supervisors or line Managers. The line Managers will, in turn, discuss with the employees on when they would have their annual leave scheduled for the year. When all necessary adjustments are made and clashes in dates ironed out then the roster can be returned to HR for documentation and implementation.

COMPUTATION OF ANNUAL LEAVE PAY

Section 19, of the Labour Act, gives information on the basis for computation of leave or sick benefits when its stated inter alia that
In the calculation of leave pay and sickness benefits only that part of his wages which a worker receives in money (excluding overtime and other allowances) shall be taken into account.
This means that depending on the agreed percentage either determined by a contract of employment or collective agreement, the computation shall be based on the staff annual base pay That is Basic + Housing + Transportation excluding other allowances, bonuses, overtime rates etc.
I have equally seen an organization where leave pay is computed as a factor of Annual Basic salary thereby excluding Housing and transportation allowance.
However, in order not to sound too prescriptive, it is important that the principle of collective agreement, contract of employment, practices within a sector or industry be taken into consideration when computing leave allowance.
An organization can decide to do more but the fundamental rest on section 19 of the Act.

CONCLUSION

It is intended that this article will be further expanded upon to cover other leave related matters such as maternity leave, compassionate, study leave and examination leave. Its also planned to look at specific organizations and the government agencies if such permission is given.

In the overall, the objective of this blog article is to clarify some of the gray issues surrounding the interpretation of the provision of the Nigerian labor Act regarding annual leave allowance and its implementation. I sincerely hope that this article has been helpful to you and I will be willing to answer your questions on this and other posts that I have written.

References

Alan Cave ” Managing Change in the Workplace New Approaches to Employee Relations” Coopers & Lybrand 1994

Nigerian Labour Act 1990

Rebecca R. Milla Sanes and John Schmitt ” No Vacation Nation, Revisited” May 2013. Center for Economic and Policy Research ( CEPR)

Sola Fajana, ” Human Resource Management An Introduction” Labofin and Company, Lagos. 2006

Nwagbo Eze ” African Industrial – Organizational Psychology” Pumark Nigeria Limited. 2004

Wikipedia

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Amazingly too, a survey conducted by the News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) in 2014 shows that about 60 million Nigerians between the age of 18 and 40 years are involved in sports betting and spending about N1.8 billion ($ 11 million) daily and by today estimate that will amount to 4 billion Naira daily.
My concern is on the impact of employee use of official work hours in attending to their personal endeavor be it a legitimate or illegitimate activity and its impact on overall productivity. Having said that, this article will also x-ray the control measures that are available to business owners and HR handlers in addressing such matters as gambling and licensed-pool-betting in the workplace.

IS BETTING (GAMBLING) LEGITIMATE IN NIGERIA?

I have adopted a deliberate use of terminologies to make a distinction between betting and gambling in order to periscope their positions within the context of the Nigerian Laws. It is instructive to say that the term gambling carries a negative connotation within the Nigerian social space, however, does this perception make gambling illegal?
On the other hand, betting seems mild in outlook and somewhat readily acceptable to Nigerians having hundreds of sports betting centers in cities across the country and acceptance of casinos in some major hotels in Lagos and Abuja in particular. This is not to ignore the availability of underground casinos and gambling spots across the metropolis.

IS THERE A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BETTING AND GAMBLING?

It is important to state that there is no difference between betting and gambling. In fact, betting is a form of gambling. However, if it is done outside the law it becomes illegal and a criminal offense.
The Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, Chapter 18, section 155, subsection (4) states thus
Any person other than the persons mentioned in subsection (1) of this section who is found in a gaming house shall be deemed, unless the contrary is proved, to be there for the purpose of unlawful gaming and shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine of fifteen thousand Naira for the first offence and for each subsequent offence to a fine of forty five thousand Naira or imprisonment for three months or both.

Continue reading: NIGERIAN LAWS AND GAMBLING

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WHAT IS OVERTIME WORK?

Simply define, overtime is the amount of time a worker worked in excess of the standard working hour as defined by law, practice or customs or collective agreement. Overtime work is mostly regulated by the contract of employment and standard employment practices.
Section 13, subsection (2) of the Nigerian Labour Acts 1990, defines overtime as Hours which a worker is required to work in excess of the normal hours fixed under subsection (1) of this section shall constitute overtime.

JUSTIFICATION FOR OVERTIME WORK AND PAYMENT

It is important to states right from the onset that overtime work is not compulsory but it is permitted by law and most organizations. The peculiarity of company’s operations may sometimes demand that employees put in some extra hours at ensuring that their works are completed and daily deliverables met.
Many reasons have been advanced to justified overtime work and they will include the following:

• THE NEED TO MEET WORK DEMAND AND SCHEDULE
It is my opinion that work should be properly scheduled so as to avoid work overload and its attendant consequences, however, it has been noticed that more pressure is put on the workers to meet their daily work demand on time. Often times, because of inadequate time and other exigencies for example cut in power supply (Nigeria) and equipment failure the needs for overtime might arise.

• NEED TO AVOID IN-OFFICE DISTRACTION AND WORK-DISRUPTION
Office distraction and work disruption might be due to operational reasons such as scheduled and unscheduled meeting, traffic gridlock during official work hours, email overload, customer complaints, and external customers demands and so on. When this happens and there is a need to submit an important report then the justification for an overtime work would become appropriate.

• OUTPACING SYNDROME
It has equally be observed that there are some individuals who are hyper-hard-working who had the preference for working beyond normal work hours in order to achieve greater productivity and better result. However, care must be taken not to rank individual whose aim is to deliberately make money and paint the picture of a hardworking worker. The latter individuals will prefer to lazy around during official hours just to be left with incomplete work for which they demand overtime payment.

• EXCESSIVE CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS
It is a universal practice not to walk out on customer; in fact, it is recommended that until the last customer leaves the shop floor you don’t take a walk. A worker whose role is to attend to a walk-in customer or those seeking for one solution or the others will always stay back in as much as they have the customer in view and ensure that their queries are resolved and properly attended to.

• THE NEED FOR CONTINUITY OF WORKFLOW
There are instances when an employee failed to report for a shift duty and it becomes necessary for another staff to continue in the absence of the absentee staff.

Continue to: THE IMPACT OF AN UNREGULATED OVERTIME WORK
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