What is a Staff Poly or Employee Handbook? Is it required by labour law?
Staff Policy or Employee Handbook is a body of rules or contract of a company which regulates the internal affairs of a company as well as its relationship with its employees. A handbook is intended to give every employee the basic information about the employer’s workplace and the general conditions of service. It can be regarded as a body of rules because it sets down the rules and regulation guiding employees. It is also a contract document because it contains the company’s representations and assurances of what it offers in exchange for an employee’s service.
Nigerian law does not make the adoption of a Staff Policy or Employee Handbook mandatory. However, Section 7(1) of the Labour Act mandates employers to provide their workers written particulars and special conditions of their employment not later than three months after a worker assumes work duty. Also, international best practice in labour and employment relations (which the National Industrial Courts can now enforce in Nigeria) enjoins employers to set out in writing the rules and regulations as well as benefits and other aspects of an employment contract.
What is the importance of Employee Handbook and the right of an employee to a copy?
In every company, which adopts a Staff Policy or Employee Handbook, a worker has the right to demand for the issuance of a copy of such Staff Policy or Employee Handbook which may be applicable to him or her, or have been incorporated into his or her employment contract and which is meant to further regulate the employment relationship. The general conditions of service contained in an Employee Handbook may confer rights on a staff member beyond those specifically provided in employees’ respective letters of appointment and may address questions of supervision or reporting lines, grievance or discipline, disengagement, retirement, termination and benefits as well as other conditions that may apply to all staff members either expressly or implicitly excluded or modified by individual letter of appointment. Every employee is expected to be given a copy of applicable Staff Policy or Employee Handbook upon assumption of duty. A worker cannot be victimized or witch-hunted for demanding for a copy of the company’s handbook. All claims arising from the employment can only be made in court if the original or a copy of the policy or handbook is produced in court.
Which is superior between Employment Letter and Staff Handbook?
Both the employment letter and the Staff Handbook are usually read together by courts as joint contract documents which govern an employment relationship between a company and its workers. However, depending on the nature of employment, a staff handbook usually overrides an employment letter and, in some cases, employment claims may be upheld by the court notwithstanding the employee’s inability to produce his or her employment letter, provided he has a copy of the handbook.
According to Justice B. B. Kanyip of the NIC, letters of appointment in Nigeria generally are very short, often one-or-two-page documents which, by their nature, do not and cannot contain all the conditions of service. The judge also noted that justice dispensation can still be fairly achieved in employment litigations without the letters of employment if the Staff Handbook, tendered in evidence, contains the terms and conditions of service of the company. The correctness of the foregoing view is confirmed in SPECOMILLS TEXTILES, IKEJA V. NATIONAL UNION OF TEXTILES, GARMENT AND TAILORING WORKERS OF NIGERIA where the NIC held that: “The terms and conditions of employment set out in a company’s handbook, form the basis of the contract of employment between the company and its employees”. Also, Justice Anuwe of the NIC had an opportunity to determine the conflict between an employment letter and a handbook in Mr. Samuel Uhuaba v. Aero Contractors Nigeria Limited wherein his lordship held in 2014 that a Staff Handbook supersedes an employment letter.
Does an Employer have the Power to make Unilateral Changes to a Staff Handbook?
The policies in a company’s Employee Handbook are usually amended from time to time to accommodate or address the exigencies of the employer’s business and welfare needs of the employees, as the case may be. So, it is not unusual to find in such Handbook a clause like “This Policy is currently in effect and can be amended from time to time at management’s discretion.”
By law, any additions, deletions or modifications of staff policy, when done or approved by a company’s management, must generally be communicated to all affected employees. The rationale for the company’s obligation to notify the workers or workers’ union of any changes in the Handbook is in line with the law that a handbook is a product of agreement, so its amendment too must be mutually agreed to by both the employer and the employee. See Nlewedim v. Uduma and Shoprite Checkers [Pty] Ltd & Anor. v. A. I. C. Ltd.
All the employer is obliged to do is to notify the employee by email or publishing the new amendments (or the revised version of the Handbook) on its intranet or portal where all affected employees can access same. In Olawale Folorunsho v. Fidelity Bank Plc, Justice G. I. Nweneka of the NIC overruled the employee’s objection to the admissibility of an amendment to a staff handbook when it held that:
“I agree with Defendant that Exhibit D1C demonstrates that parties communicated through email. In addition, Exhibits D1A and D1B were addressed to “All Staff Notice” and “All of us” respectively, and by his position as a senior manager, the Claimant would have received the emails. In any event, there is nothing in his pleadings denying receipt of the emails. The effect of the decisions on this subject…… is that a party who challenges receipt of a document must clearly say so in his pleading, and not otherwise. Delivery and receipt of documents are questions of fact, and evidence on facts not pleaded goes to no issue…… As argued by the Defendant, Claimant joined issues with the Defendant in paragraphs 12, 14, 15, 16 and 17 of his reply to the statement of defence which implies that he received the documents. In conclusion, I hold that this objection has not been properly made out, and it is hereby overruled.”
If an employee is aggrieved about any changes or amendment in a Staff Policy or Employee Handbook, he or she must resign within a reasonable time after becoming aware of such amendment or changes in order to be able to maintain any claim against the employer. Failure to resign within a reasonable time is deemed to be an implied agreement to the amendment or changes.
Can an Employer Terminate an Employment for a Reason that is not Contained in the Employee Handbook?
An employer has an absolute power to terminate an employment or dismiss an employee for good reason even if that reason is not contained in the Staff Policy or Employee Handbook. The law is that an employer has the right to dismiss an employee even if not specifically written in the contract of service. See Simon Ansambe v. Bank of the North Ltd [2005] 8 NWLR (Pt. 928) 650. In another decided case by Hon. Justice B. B. Kanyip, the argument of the claimant’s counsel that the defendant’s Employee Handbook (Exhibit C10) did not stipulate that gross negligence and incompetence is punishable by dismissal, and as such his dismissal on that ground is wrongful, was rejected on the ground that the defendant has the right to dismiss whether or not the contract of service states so.
Are Nigerian Courts bound to enforce all the Terms Contained in an Employee Handbook?
No. The Nigerian courts are courts of law, equity and justice. If any provision of a Handbook infringes on the provision of the law or is contrary to principles of equity or justice, the National Industrial Courts will readily nullify it. Section 7(6) of the National industrial Court Act 2006 and Section 254C(1)(f) and (h), and (2) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria were passed not just to bring National Industrial Court fully within the structure of the Nigerian Judiciary but introduced a new labour jurisprudence in the country to prevent bad and unfair labour practices. The provisions of the foregoing laws operate to create and set a standard as a benchmark against which labour and industrial relations in Nigeria are to be measured and any Employee Handbook or Staff Policy that contradicts them will be declared void.
