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Duties of Employee To Employer
Duties of Employee To Employer
three important keywords which validate the law; acceptability, obligatory and
sanction /punishment. Any law made must be acceptable by the community, there
is obligation to obey the law and finally punishment for breaking the law.
Labour law (industrial law or employment law) is that branch of law which deals
with the legal relationship between employer and employee or using the old legal
term between master and servant. It is the basis of existence and operation of all
the state in its capacity as a regulator and employer of labour. It stems from the
relevance is abounding in our economic life, social and political life. Labour law
employer in the other hand to stem the laziness, indolence, tardiness, recklessness
and inertia of the employer. The sources of these laws are notably the received
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Normally, the relationship between employer and employee arise out of contract
which is an agreement between two or more persons and enforceable at law. Under
the law, there are duties of employer to the employee and also the duties of
employee to the employer. This duties are ascertained from the express terms of
discussed.
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Duties of an employee to an employer
2. Duty of corporation
This specifies that the employee must render personal services to the
to satisfy his terms of contract. This also means that the employee may not
delegate his duty to another person without the consent of the employer or
employ a substitute to do his job for him, but where terms of employment
contain such delegation of duties and will not in any way cause any damage,
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This particularly possibility of delegation does not breach the employment
contract but for the interest of the job. In Express Echo V Tankot, the court
employment.
2. Duty of cooperation.
loyal manner. The employee should cooperate with the employer, any
This implies that the employee must serve his employer faithfully and not
willfully do anything that can breach the masters undertaking. This was first
this case, ASLEEF was conducting a work to rule and argued that there was
no breach of contract as the employee were following the rule to book and
nothing more but the court of appeal judges ruled that the employees were in
breach of contract. It stated that if the employee took willfully act to disrupt
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Buckley LJ said that there is an implied term in all contracts that the
commercial interest.
master’s legitimate and reasonable orders. Any act of disobedience can lead
not to obey order amounts to breach of contract because the employer order
Maso, where a domestic servant who had visited her sick mother contrary to
her masters order. The court held to have been rightfully dismissed in
contract though some orders may not be in the contract of employment but it
may be reasonable. Employees are bound to obey orders not request. hHe or
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Some orders may be legitimate but not reasonable as in the case of Ottoman
court held that the order was legitimate but not reasonable in the
The employee owes the employer a duty to take reasonable care in the
performance of his duties. The employer must render careful services and if
liable to indemnify his employer or can also be dismissed. This requires the
posses relevant skills to make him work proficiently. In the case Usen V
Bank of West Africa LTD, it was held that the defendants were held entitled
to dismiss the plaintiff, a bank clerk for negligence leading to loss of money
by the bank.
In some cases, the blame for injury or loss may not entirely be on the
injury or loss. Both the employer and employee are joint tort feasors and are
jointly liable for the servant’s negligence. In the case Jones V Manchester
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corporation. A man went for a minor operation in a hospital and died as a
authority for damages. It was held that the hospital contributed to the
supervision.
The employer is bound by law to be loyal to his employer. Even though the
employee is free to do what he wants at his free time, he cannot work for a
spare time which affects his ability to perform his main job. This amounts to
breach of implied duty to perform his work with reasonable skills and care.
The employee has the option to resign his main job or be dismissed by his
employer.
using the employer’s equipments, common law states that the employer is
Nigerian Patent and Design Act 2004 allows the inventor to apply for the
patent of his invention but a provision in section2 (4) of the Act empowers
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the court to apportion benefit between the employer and the employee but in
not benefit his invention because he was only carrying out his job. In the
case of British Syphon co. LTD V Homewood. Home wood was employee
dispenser which he has never been asked to advice the company on. The
court ruled that since the invention was made when the defendant was I
company
information entrusted to him provided that he has been informed that the
information is confidential. The law also states that employees should not
elaborate that the employer has the duty not to disclose such information
even after the relationship with his employer has ended. There are two types
fowler was a salesman who left Faccenda chicken to establish his own.
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Faccenda chicken sued for damages relating to misuse of sales information
relating to prices and customers. The court dismissed the claim. The court
even after the relationship have ended e.g. trade secrets and processes and
disclosed when in service of the masters but not a breach after the
may be difficult to prove that the confidential nature of the information was
The employee is only entitled to accept reward from his employer and is
implied not to accept payment from another source even if it will not
influence him. The employee should not ask for tips or bribe before carrying
out his legitimate function. The employee should also not try to extort
money from customers for him to render his services. In the case of Boston
Deep Sea Fishing and Ice V Ansell. The employee was accepting payments
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for placing orders with a supplier and was receiving dividends from shares
he owned in another supplier of his employer. The court held that his
Where the seller of a business agrees that he will not start a similar
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Sources of industrial law in Nigeria
2. Constitution
3. Statutory regulation
4. Decided cases
The root of Nigeria judiciary system is based on the legal system the
colonial masters left behind. Nigeria was a colony of Britain for almost a
century, within these years, Britain introduced many things into the country
legal system on us. This legal system included their labour laws. By virtue of
the court ordinance NO 3 of 1863 English law was introduced into its
colony Nigeria. Through this, the general principle of English law of tort,
contract, crime, land law, constitutional law, mercantile and commercial law
was introduced into the colony of Lagos and after the amalgamation of the
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southern and northern protectorates. The law was extended to all Nigeria.
Though some of the law have been repelled and replaced with indigenous
2. Nigeria constitution
The constitution of federal republic of Nigeria provides the blue print for
relations in Nigeria. The laws are stipulated in section 16(2) of the 1999i
Constitution sources of labour law are those which guarantee certains rights
and freedom to workers such as the right to the dignity of the human person
section 34, right to personal liberty (section 35), right to fair hearing (section
39), the right to peace assembly and association (section 40), the right to
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parliament but after independence , Nigerian legislatures have enacted statue
Act 2004, the trade unions Act 2004, the trade disputes Act 2004, the
workmen’s compensation Act 2004, the factories Act 2004, pension Reform
4. Decided cases
Rights duties and obligations of the employer are declared and enforced by
court decisions, the statutes are paper tigers. These decided cases constitutes
Nigerian courts which have given prowess to labour statues. Some of them
Foreign decided cases are also looked upon when there is absence of Nigeria
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5. Collective bargaining and collective agreements
On the other hand under the trade dispute Act 2004, a collective
the case Africa continental Bank LTD Vs Moodika where the judge
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stated that it is clear from or embodied into the conditions or contract of
labour. Labour law recognizes the fact that terms of a contract could be
made complete by reference to other work rules and notices. Thus, the term
of services are however subject to provision of section 7(3) of the labour Act
which allows the employer to refer the work rules that are not stipulated in
the terms of contract. Most employers supplement the contract wither further
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References
https://www.lawhandbook:sa.gov.av/ch/8s02802.php
https://www.law360.com/article/37220/theduty-of-loyalty-for-employers
Limited. Portharcourt
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/sttutory_law
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