COMPENSATION AND REWARD MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

Evaluating National Attitudes to

1. Women at work particularly mothers

2. Holidays and the Work/Leisure Mix
3. Retirement Ages and how age and seniority are significant factors
4. Nepotism, the old boys network or tribe employing from within the family or circle of
friends
5. Employee contracts being readily terminated if their performance is inadequate
6. Employers efforts to take in long term social responsibility
7. Retaining staff in a trade down-turn or does the employer
8. Resort to a short term hire and fire policy

Country - Nigeria

Submitted By

Col. Rishi Raj Charan G- 26

Ayush Manchanda G- 46
 1. Women At Work

Nigeria leans towards the collectivist end of the scale, but constitutes a strongly male-dominated
society. A gendered division of work prevails. Running ones own home is the womans
responsibility, even though she may employ male helpers to cook, do the laundry or clean the
house. Nigeria constitutes the lowest number of female parliamentarians central Africa and ranks
133rd in the world for female political representation. Women own only 20 per cent of
enterprises in the formal sector and only 11.7 per cent of Board Directors in the country are
women. This is because of the womens limited access to finance which is double in the case of
the men, despite the fact that various research showed that women were more likely to repay
their loans. This inability to access finance is because of the lack of property rights which hinder
them from providing the collateral needed for loans. Despite the attempt to strengthen their
property rights via the Land Administration Act, land ownership remains dependent on a
patriarchal inheritance system because of which land is passed from fathers to male descendants.
For this reason, some financial institutions have made their products more gender sensitive.
Schemes such as Keystone Banks Pink Account and Access Banks W initiatives which
provide special loans and credit facilities to women are two recent developments for example.

Gender parity in the corporate sector is a challenge. This is due to the opaque board nomination
process usually done through informal networks such as old boys association or mens social
clubs which obviously puts women at a disadvantage. In addition to this, most companies are
unaware of the benefits of a gender diverse board; research has shown that there is a positive
correlation between women in senior corporate roles and a companys financial performance.

WIMBIZ (Women in Management, Business and Public Service) is a non-profit that has been at
the forefront of the advocacy for equal opportunities for women in the corporate sector. In 2011,
they published the first ever data on female Directors in Nigeria where it was shown that of the
190 listed companies, only 10.5 per cent of board seats were held by women. WIMBIZs
activities include assisting women to apply for board positions, providing mentorship and
sponsorship for high potential women and organising high-level conferences where women can
network with successful professionals in various industries. In 2015, one of WIMBIZs founding
trustees Mrs Ibukun Awosika was appointed as the first female Chairperson of the Board of
Directors of First Bank Nigeria PLC, one of Nigerias largest Banks.

Although there are a number of examples that prove that women are foraying into almost all
fields, one of the biggest sectors in Nigeria itself has yet to see leadership from the women. The
oil and gas industry is still overwhelmingly male, with surveys showing that the executive
boardrooms of petroleum companies are mostly a boys' club. However, Diezani Alison-
Madueke, the petroleum minister sets an inspiring example for the female educated youth hungry
to achieve, so does a female member of the cabinet Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala who is the finance
minister.

Ladol, - a petroleum services company based in Lagos, had appointed Dr. Amy Jadesimi as their
managing director. Under her guidance, the company was able to turn a site reclaimed from a
swamp and an industrial wasteland into a $500m (300m) port facility to support offshore
drilling operations, including ship repair, maintenance, engineering and construction. She
claimed in an interview that nobody had done what Ladol had done before across the whole of
West Africa.

Another example is Catherine Uju Ifejika is chairman and chief executive of the Britannia U
Group, a group of oil and gas companies. Her business bought a stake in a major oil and gas
field, Ajapa. The reserves, according to Britannia, are worth $4.3bn. Within a span of six years
she formed seven companies and in an interview she said that 70% of her staff are men, "and
they're not used to having a woman as a chairman or chief executive - a woman, a black woman,
a black African woman." Which only goes to show that the ambitious female youth have been
dreaming of changing the trends for a long time.

Yewande Sadiku is the chief executive of the Lagos-based financing firm Stanbic IBTC Capital.
She says that the lenders providing loans to Nigerian and other African women too often had a
limited outlook in the past. They would think that women are good customers for micro-finance
loans only that were enough for the women to run small businesses to support their families.

According to a World-Bank report, the rate of female entrepreneurship in Africa is higher than
any other region in the world. Another report published by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor,
states that Africa also leads the world in the number of women starting businesses, male and
female entrepreneurs going head to head in numbers. In fact in countries like Nigeria, Ghana,
Kenya and Zambia, female entrepreneurs outnumber the men.

African women constitute 70 per cent of the informal economy and one third of Africas formal
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are owned by women. This essentially means that
where women were once content to play quietly away from in smaller fields, away from
attention, the modern-day female entrepreneur displays a keener sense of business savvy, is more
exposed, and is equipped with more tools to further amplify and grow her business. Another
interesting element in the rise of female entrepreneurs is the fact that now, more than at anytime
in the past, there are more women operating what was hitherto assumed to be male-only
professions. It is, therefore, not surprising to see successful female coders, mechanics, painters,
furniture makers, and even, drivers.

As for working mothers, a survey on working mothers conducted by Mamalette shows that 56%
of Nigerian babies 3 months old and younger are being looked after by strangers i.e. nannies or
daycare providers. Approximately 60% of working mothers surveyed said they were only able to
exclusively breastfeed their babies for 3 months or less. While only 24% of the women surveyed
were able to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months. For many working mothers in Nigeria, it
appears that the official maternity leave period of 3 months is insufficient. For example only
30% of mums surveyed said this 3-months leave period was enough time to look after their
newborns. 76% of mums admitted that they would have liked it if their maternity leave period
was for 6 months or more. Thus in 2014, the Lagos State Government, approved for its
employees to enjoy six-months maternity leave as against the three months that was in practice
before.

For busy career mothers, day care centers, crche, nurseries and the likes are like a God-sent
solution. For such parents without live-in relatives like grandmothers, aunties and cousins who
can act as care takers for the newborn, a crche is the only viable alternative when the nursing
mother has to resume work at the end of her maternity leave. For many busy parents striving to
work hard and bring in enough money to meet the familys needs, its a hard choice they have to
make. In many cases, child rearing and family life take the back seat, while the pursuit of money
wins. To fill in the gap are nannies, house maids, crches, play and nursery schools who now act
as surrogate mothers to the children. While the parents are busy at work, these carers feed,
clothe, change nappies, rock them to sleep, soothe them when they cry, play with them and
generally perform the functions which mothers, by their natural dispensation, are supposed to
play. One such care taker at a crche in an interview revealed that these working mothers
sometimes leave home as early as 4 am. Some return to pick their children at 5pm, some at 8pm,
some at 10pm while for others, we have to take them to their homes at 11pm. To respond to the
needs of such working mothers, a crche consulting and management company - The Baby
Lounge Limited, has recently opened its own crche and has helped numerous organizations set
up and manage in-office crches. Total Nigeria and Access Bank were the first organizations to
be the clients of this company thus bringing relief to the working mothers in these companies.
 2. Holidays and Work/Liesure Mix

Nigeria has been greatly influenced by the British system, with limited government regulations
for employers. This means there is a wide scope for employers to design and adopt work-family
policies if they want to, but the legal protection of employees personal and family time in
Nigeria is very limited. Human Resource Management remains largely an administrative
function, though lately a number of organizations seek to give it a strategic role in line with the
practice of some sectors such as oil, banking and consulting. The stress of working life in the big
cities is high. Distances are large, roads are bad and chaotic traffic keeps workers for hours on
the road every day. Employees are expected to work long hours as a manifestation of
commitment. Family size remains relatively large, even in cities. Household work is carried out
with only the most elementary equipment because of the erratic power supply and chronic water
shortage. Only those wealthy enough to back up their electricity supply with a generator can
store provisions in a deep freezer. While the extended family system provides some support in
the care of the home and children, it also involves additional responsibilities and obligations,
with heavy demands on personal time and energy

The stress of working life in the big cities is high. Distances are large, roads are bad and chaotic
traffic keeps workers for hours on the road every day. Employees are expected to work long
hours as a manifestation of commitment. Family size remains relatively large, even in cities.
Household work is carried out with only the most elementary equipment because of the erratic
power supply and chronic water shortage. Only those wealthy enough to back up their electricity
supply with a generator can store provisions in a deep freezer. While the extended family system
provides some support in the care of the home and children, it also involves additional
responsibilities and obligations, with heavy demands on personal time and energy The results of
a research conducted by Ojo Ibiyinka Stella, Salau Odunayo Paul, Falola Hezekiah Olubusayo,
on the work-life balance practices in Nigeria in reference to three sectors Education, Banking
and Power, revealed that there is diversity in terms of how respondents perceive the concept of
Work-Life Balance. There is a wide gap between corporate WLB practices and employees
understanding of the concept. A key characteristic influencing work life balance is the weak
collective employee voice. Within the Nigerian academic environment, the lecturers are
represented by a body called Academic Staff Union of Universities. The national trade union
the Nigerian Labour Congress, which represents all workers in the country, has had to intervene
in strengthening the bargaining power. There has been a tremendous increase in the number of
universities in the last five years with over a hundred private, State and Federal Universities. The
massive expansion in the educational institutions has led academic staff members to also take up
administrative responsibilities which resulted in increased work load. Unions have emerged to
improve the conditions of service and work load. The unions also provide a platform for an
effective articulation of grievances, a protection and defence of the basic rights of its members.
The Lecturers have annual leave of up to 30 working days that can be split as convenient there is
provision for medical leave and compassionate leave.

The Nigerian Banking sector is notorious for its long hour culture and high work load of
employees in the sector which results in neglect of other areas of life with parents not spending
enough time with their children and many kids been raised by maids. This long hour culture has
also resulted in many couples separating or divorcing. This trend has a negative influence on the
Individuals because Nigeria is family oriented (traditional society) hence the failure of a family
system is termed as a failure on the individuals part which tends to affect the success of persons.

Although, there is a trade union in the Power sector which caters for the welfare of its
employees; the sector still has its fair share of causal worker. The power sector has recently
undergone privatization hence there has been change in management style and variation in the
work patterns with some of the employees doing early shift and others working late shift which
has resulted in some of the employees experiencing work-life challenge. The power sector is a
male-dominated sector, although it has improved very much in the last few years women are still
few, mostly in administrative section. While the educational sector and banking sectors have an
almost equal distribution of male and
female employees. There is a general
believe that WLB policies and
practices are inclined towards female
with more initiatives available for
women such as maternity leave,
childcare arrangements, parental leave.
This is however not the case as there
are paternity leave available to men, both childcare arrangements and parental leave can be used
by male employees as well as more men now care for their children. The table on the previous
page shows the Work Life Balance practices which were available in the three sectors of the
economy these initiatives majority of the WLB initiatives which can be identified in western
literature with the exception of some practices such as Job share, annualized hours and
compressed hours which were understandably unavailable since workers collectively have a
preference for the conventional full time permanent contracts to temporary or casual work.

The table below shows the percentage of use of the initiatives by managers and the employees.
The percentage of usage was reflective of national culture which chooses full time work because
surplus of labour which exist in
the country. Study leave was
unsurprisingly high in the
educational sector because most
of the academic staff had to
improve themselves to stay
relevant in the field. The
childcare arrangements and
parental leave were more popular across the three sectors because they were indicated as the
most common form of arrangement. Flexi time and home working were usually undertaken by
the managers in the banking sector. While employees in the educational sector indicated that
home working was usually suited for managers. In the educational sector and power sector,
mothers can obtain extended maternity leave with the guarantee of returning to their previous
position which is not the case in the Banking sector.

Paternity leave has been introduced in a few of the banks while there no such leave arrangement
in the educational and power sectors. The educational sector has a wide range of policies to
allow for time flexibility. The Banking sector and power sector, by contrast, has no special
policy with regard to work-life balance beyond what is strictly required by the law. There is
flexibility in taking annual leave or short vacations, but this is a general practice in the Nigerian
society rather than a deliberate policy.
Identifying the barriers to work-life balance initiatives revealed that, lack of communication,
heavy job demands and long working hours, among others were the major factors. In the banking
industry, as banks seek to outperform one another in customer service many of the managers and
employees work long work hours. However, the responses from those in the educational and
power sectors were not put under such pressure.

An article for The Nation, by the Title Too Busy for the Family, posted on October 25, 2014,
reveals that in the city of Lagos, the most corporate offices are in an island called Victoria Island
where residential areas are beyond the reach of most of those working in the island. The
distances to and from work thus prove to be anywhere between 30 to 40 kilometers because of
which many employees have to leave their homes by 4:30 am and they come back by 11pm the
least thanks to the heavy traffic encountered on the only main bridge connecting the mainland to
the island. Even though the companies offered staff buses for employees from various distances,
the stress and fatigue levels that they complained of because of the amount of time spent in
traffic was the common plight. Some employees now share and accommodation with colleagues
within the island for the 5/6 day working week and return home only for the weekend.
 3. Retirement Ages and Seniority

The retiring age limit for all pensionable officers of statutory corporations shall be sixty years. It
is lawful for any relevant authority by an instrument or in the manner prescribed (by the rules of
any statutory corporation relating to the conditions of service of its staff) to require any
pensionable officer of such corporation under its authority, or in relation to which it is
empowered to deal with matters concerning the conditions of service of the staff of such
corporation, to retire from the service of the corporation on his attainment of the age of 55 years.
As per the Statutory Corporations Pensionable Officers (Retiring Age Limit) Act, Where the
officer has attained the retiring age limit or immediately before his attainment of that age; on
being satisfied-

(a) that the services of the officer are required by the statutory corporation after that age; and

(b) that the officer is certified by a medical officer approved by the relevant authority to be
physically fit for the purposes of his duties, the relevant authority may elect to continue or extend
the services of the said officer thereafter from year to year or for such period or periods as it
deems fit but not beyond the age of 60 years, and subject to such conditions as the relevant
authority may at its discretion impose.

Recently, the Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan signed the law increasing the retirement of
polytechnic and university lecturers. The new law also increases retirement age of staff in the
professorial cadre and non-academic staff in Nigerian universities to 70 and 65 years
respectively. The law also exempts the lecturers from the Public Service Rule which requires a
person to retire from the Public Service after serving for 35 years. It limits tenure of principal
officers of universities to 1 term of 5 years only. but increases the retirement age of staff in the
professorial cadre in the universities from 65 years to 70 years and from 60 to 65 years for
polytechnic and College of Education lecturers.

A close analysis of teachers distribution in Nigeria has revealed that, there are not enough
qualified teachers in most of the states in the northern part of the country. Even the non-northern
teachers employed by some northern states are usually engaged on contract basis and often leave
with time for the fear of job insecurity. In order to mitigate this challenge, it was deemed
reasonable to raise retirement age for teachers in northern states for now but experts advised that
it must be done by their respective state governments based on their needs and not by the federal
authority as it has been arrogated to it. Dr. Adebisi from the Federal College of Agriculture,
Akure, says that the retirement age may not even be uniformly fixed by the states in the region.
In the southern part of the country, the narrative is different. There are innumerable unemployed
graduate teachers in the region. To create room for this army of unemployed youth therefore, it
may be reasonable to leave retirement age at 60 if it cannot even be reduced at the legislative
discretion of each state in the region.

Also, Nigeria is a country where most people dont declare their true age. Thus even at 60 years,
people do overstay in service by an average of between 3-5years. Furthermore, when the
retirement age of university teachers was reviewed, it rested majorly on shortage of Ph.D holders
and dwindling rank of professors to mentor younger academicians.
 4. Nepotism

The concept of Nepotism primarily dwells in the federation and has been in the light of concern
ever since Muhammad Buhari took office as the president of Nigeria in 2015. The economic
conditions as of date are not healthy and the entire blame and reason for the same points out to
the unfair practices of nepotism the president is now notoriously known for by the nation. The
Nigerian governor Mr. Fayose in an interview to Premium Times on September 3, 2017, says
that the president was obviously being tormented by fear of the unknown, which he described as
the main reason people take to nepotism. He says s a leader, you dont need to fear anything.
But the moment a leader peeps into the future, realising that his lack of capacity could have
consequential effects on him, such a leader will definitely resort to nepotism to protect himself.
Also, the moment a government is unable to guarantee the existence of the people, it must resort
to nepotism to protect itself and that is exactly what is being witnessed in Nigeria. Exchange rate
was less than N200 to $1 when President Buhari took over power, as at today, it has gone beyond
N400 to $1 and Naira is still undergoing a free fall. One bag of rice was less than N8, 000 as at
May 2016, it is now N20, 000. Kerosene is now beyond the reach of the masses.

However, the cases of nepotism though prevalent in most Nigerian companies, has just come to
light as a recent case involving the National Nigerian Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
Recently A new petrol import scheme put in place by the Nigerian National Petroleum
Corporation, is engulfed in controversy as marketers accuse the management of the state oil firm
of nepotism and of favouring indigenous oil firms that have godfathers in the Buhari
administration.Some marketers involved in the recently introduced Direct-Sale-Direct-Purchase,
DSDP, crude oil swap arrangement by the NNPC say the scheme is worse in terms of
transparency than the crude oil swap arrangement that obtained during the Goodluck Jonathan
administration.The marketers accuse the NNPC management of preferential treatment for
allegedly approving a discriminatory price regime for different indigenous oil marketing firms
participating in the scheme. The DSDP scheme was introduced in March 2016 by the Minister of
State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, after he jettisoned the controversial crude-for-
products arrangement, popularly called crude oil swap, by the previous administration as a
strategy to cater for the country's domestic need for petroleum products. Mr. Kachikwu had said
the new arrangement would entrench transparency in the crude oil-for-product transaction by the
NNPC in line with global best practices, to give the country full value for its crude. Under the
scheme, the minister said, an open bidding process would ensure the crude-for-product exchange
was conducted in a transparent manner to reduce the gaps inherent in the offshore processing
arrangement, OPA involved in the swap deal of the Jonathan administration. But some of the
participating companies, among those awarded contracts early this year by the NNPC for the
purchase and sale of Nigerian crude oil for 2017/2018, have accused the NNPC of giving
preferential treatment to three indigenous oil firms in the allocation of crude oil. Out of about 39
companies that emerged winners of the contracts announced in January 2017 were 18 Nigerian
companies, pre-qualified to lift and trade on 32,000 barrels per day. The companies include
Oando, Sahara Energy, MRS Oil & Gas, AA Rano, Bono, Masters Energy, Eterna Oil and Gas,
Cassiva Energy, Hyde Energy and Brittania U. Others were North-West Petroleum, Optima
Energy, AMG Petroenergy, Arkiren Oil and Gas Limited, Shoreline Limited, Entourage Oil,
Setana Energy and Prudent Energy. The DSDP involves these firms bidding for the NNPC's
daily allocation of 445,000 barrels of crude oil originally meant for local refining. The bid
winners (expected to be firms who offered to pay the highest price) receive the crude to export
and refine the crude and then bring back petrol to Nigeria. "Nobody seems to understand the
criteria NNPC is using to allocate crude oil to Oando, Sahara Energy and MRS Oil & Gas at
prices lower than every other bidder," one of the aggrieved marketers, who spoke to PREMIUM
TIMES, said on Monday.The marketer, who requested not to be named to avoid being
victimized, said most other companies were surprised the three oil marketing firms were awarded
the contract despite quoting lower prices in their respective bids."The DSDP contracts appear to
be as corrupt as the infamous swap deals under the former administration. Even the discarded
swap arrangement was more consistent in giving the same price to each supplier."For the first
time, NNPC is departing from what has always obtained in such swaps for 40 years, by giving
different prices to different companies for the same deliveries and the same work," the marketer
lamented. But, the Group Executive Director, Crude Oil Marketing Department of NNPC, Melee
Kyari, told PREMIUM TIMES in a telephone chat on Wednesday in Abuja that those criticizing
the corporation got the whole concept of the DSDP wrong. Mr. Kyari said apart from the bids
each of the companies was expected to submit, the NNPC decided to impose additional
obligations on the marketers who were willing to support government's effort to rehabilitate and
maintain its dilapidated infrastructures. "The DSDP scheme is a volume business," Mr. Kyari
explained. "To get supply security, the NNPC went beyond the prices the individual companies
offered in their bids, by putting different obligations on them. "We asked some of them: Can you
lend us (NNPC) money to repair our refineries and other infrastructures in the oil industry? Some
of them made offers of between $200 million and $300 million. Besides, Mr. Kyari said,
considering that in the last 25 years the country was unable to develop its trading business, which
traders in Europe took advantage of, the NNPC also decided to request some of the companies
interested in the business to grow their in-country capacities. "After all these additional
responsibilities, the NNPC then asked the companies to give their best prices, which every
bidding company did without NNPC's prompting. "Those who see the different prices others got
are now asking for their prices to be reviewed without knowing the additional responsibilities
given to them. I see it as nothing but greed, because they want to have everything," Mr. Kyari
said. The NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, also defended the programme. "The crude
allocation is based purely on whatever prices the marketers offered in their bids. After an
independent assessment, if such prices meet the price threshold set by the NNPC as the best
bargain, it would be approved for them," he said. PREMIUM TIMES learnt that the Minister of
State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu, will address journalists on Thursday with the DSDP and its
inherent controversy expected to be one of the major topics to be discussed. An industry source
however told PREMIUM TIMES the NNPC authorities modified the DSPD scheme Mr.
Kachikwu introduced without recourse to him as minister in charge of the country's oil and gas
sector. "I can tell you the minister is in the dark regarding the games the NNPC management is
playing with their favourite marketers," one source said. "I don't know what he plans to say."
 5. Are employees contract readily terminated if their performance is inadequate?

The Aviation Ministry in Nigeria commonly dubbed as the Hire and Fire ministry. Since 2005,
Nigerias Federal Ministry of Aviation has had no fewer that six Ministers. Three of them lasted
less than a year. The self-serving Femi Fani-Kayode who was dismissed in 2007 managed a
grande total of 209 days. Particularly dispiriting about Fani-kayodes dismissal is that it looked
as if it marked the beginning of something new in the ministry. He became the first minister of
aviation to be arrested, detained, and arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission, EFCC. His tenure had turned out to be tainted by scandal and allegations of fraud.
Much of the responsibility for the mess belongs to Fani-Kayode. The man who lays claim to
being the most successful aviation minister for Nigeria since 2002 had shown a breathtaking lack
of leadership. Although there was no record of plane crash during his stint at the ministry, which
he attributes to hard work and prayers, the ministrys greatest undoing has been over Fani-
kayodes own murky financial affairs which climaxed at the Federal Governments loss of a
whopping 19.5bn Naira Aviation Intervention Fund. Before Fani-Kayodes appointment in 2006,
Professor Babalola Borishade had served sixteen months as minister for aviation and recorded
five major plane crashes in which 453 persons perished. This record appeared to be a rehash of
Borishades woeful performance as education minister between 2001 and 2003. As education
minister, Borishade had humiliated the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU and
devalued university education. His only legacy remains the closure of Nigerian universities for
seven months. And so after the ADC Flight 53 crash in October 2006, President Olusegun
Obasanjo had no option than bow to pressure and ease him out of office as aviation minister.

As in case of Public sector, NNPC had between 2015 and 2017 undertaken three personnel
shakeups following the federal governments desire to reform the operations. Despite criticism of
the corporations frequent personnel shakeups by experts, NNPC in March 2016 appointed high-
profile personnel to man its seven newly created divisions and 20 subsidiaries. Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, who was NNPCs GMD at that time, said in an interview Why are we doing this? It
is because, quite frankly, the NNPC is very over-staffed. So, we have to create work in order to
ensure that everybody who is in the system will be busy and earn money. And as we began to do
that, we realised suddenly that we had adequate staff and we are not really as over-staffed as we
thought initially. So, the principle of our restructuring, which was approved by the president, is
that nobody losses their work.

In an interesting case of Mr. Ebere Onyekachi Aloysius v Diamond Bank Plc. [2015] it was
highlighted that the power of the employer in a master-servant relationship wherein he is
endowed with the power to hire and may terminate the latter for reason or no reason at all, was a
harsh and rigid common law posture. The court in its decision announced that such a practice is
in contrary to the international labour standard and international practices and therefore unfair
for an employer to terminate the employment of its employee without any reason or justifiable
reason that is connected with the performance of the employees work. In this case the reason
given by the defendant for determining the claimants employment in the instant case, which is
that his service was no longer required is not a valid one is not a valid one connected with the
capacity or conduct of the claimants duties in the defendant bank.

The two-year contract of Nigeria coach Stephen Keshi has been terminated because "he lacks the
required commitment" and Shuaibu Amodu will replace him with immediate effect, the Nigerian
football federation (NFF) has announced. "Having thoroughly reviewed the reports/findings of
the NFF Disciplinary Committee and NFF Technical and Development Committee, as well as
having reviewed the actions and inactions of Mr. Stephen Keshi, in the performance of his duties
as Super Eagles' head coach, which we found to lack the required commitment to achieve the
federation's objectives as set out in the coach's employment contract," the NFF said in a
statement.
 6. Does the employer take a long term social responsibility line in?

As individuals naturally consider themselves bound to a group that provides protection in

exchange for loyalty and service, the extended family system has given birth to organizational
family-ism: the expectation that employers should provide for the family needs of their staff
beyond mere remuneration for the job. In fact, Nigerian organizations tend to be generous in
contributing to family expenses such as the wedding of an employee or the burial of a close
relative of a staff member, and give soft loans to buy a car, build a house or even rent one as
rents are typically paid two years in advance.

The provisions of the Nigerian Labour Act (1974) concern mainly blue-collar workers and are
very basic. Daily hours of work are to be fixed by mutual agreement or by collective bargaining
(section 13,1). If the working day is longer than 6 hours, rest intervals of no less than one hour in
total must be allowed (section 13,3). There must be one day of rest per week (section 13,7). After
twelve months of continuous service, every worker is entitled to an annual leave of at least six
working days; this leave may be deferred by mutual agreement between the employer and the
worker, but no longer than another twelve months (section 18). Women are entitled to twelve
weeks maternity leave with no less than half pay. 4 The customary benefits are more generous,
with two to four weeks annual leave, full-pay maternity leave, and in most cases a two-day
weekend. In practice, however, it is frequent for pregnant women to lose their job, and for
employees to have to defer their annual leave indefinitely, or to spend a good portion of Saturday
and even Sunday in the office.

The usual focus of CSR in Nigeria is on the community and the society. The stakeholder
principle is well known in the business community but it appears that the place of employees as
stakeholders in business is down played. In line with the basic principle that employers should be
responsible for employee healthcare, several health care models have been used to provide
employee healthcare at minimal cost to the employer. Examples of such models include
engaging private clinics on retainer, and managed healthcare under the National Health
Insurance Scheme (NHIS). At present, the latter model appears to be the preferred model with a
number of financial institutions even branching to health insurance as a separate income stream
and registering all members of staff as enrollees under such schemes. National Health Insurance
Scheme was first introduced in Nigeria under a 1962 Bill presented to parliament by the then
Federal Minister of Health. The bill was however strongly opposed as there was little progress
made. Subsequent private initiatives resulted in the initiation of private health insurance schemes
from 1998. This catalyzed further government action at introducing a health insurance scheme in
Nigeria. The National Health Insurance Scheme. was conceptualized as a public sector employee
health insurance plan and launched in 1999 under the National Health Insurance Scheme Decree
No 35 of 1999. It was further modified and relaunched in 2003. At present, private sector
managed care caters for majority of private sector employees and is regulated by the NHIS.

The most popular means of private employee healthcare is managed care through the Health
Maintenance Organisation (HMO). Managed healthcare refers to a system of organising doctors,
hospitals and other providers into groups to enhance the quality of health care services. Under
this system, the HMO offers pre-paid health coverage to enrolled persons at a fixed premium
which it bears the responsibility of collecting and disbursing as agreed with approved health
providers. Under the managed care model, the HMO bears the responsibility for sourcing
corporate clients (employers who will register their employees) and negotiating with them on
their preferred health plans. They are also responsible for engaging the services of health care
providers (clinics/hospitals), negotiating the nature of services to be provided and paying the
healthcare providers for services rendered.

Payment arrangements with health care providers normally take two forms:

a. Capitation - Capitation is a system where the HMOs pay a fixed premium to a health provider
at pre-agreed intervals. This premium is sourced from a pool paid by the clients (in this case the
banks to the HMOs). Under the capitation system, the healthcare costs are negotiated to the
minimum with the promised possibility of profit recoupment through the volume of the HMOs
patients registered with the particular health care provider. Because of the amount paid to the
health providers for capitation, the quality of health care provided is limited and bedevilled with
bureaucratic bottlenecks requiring the healthcare provider to seek authorization for the simplest
of procedures. This often creates friction between healthcare provider and patients who are not
privy to the financial terms of the HMOs engagement of the health provider and have the false
impression that all their health issues are covered under the plan chosen by their employer.
b. Fee for Service - Also referred to as third-party, fee for service is a managed health care
plan where the employer gives the HMO the freedom to negotiate health services for its
employees. Under this plan, each service is paid for but based on pre-negotiated rates agreed
with the healthcare provider. Fee for service is akin to the old retainer system except that the
HMO acts as the agent to the employer and the healthcare provider liaises with the HMO with no
direct communication between the health care provider and the employer. Bills are sent to the
HMO who pays the health care provider based on pre-agreed rates. Services do not also require
HMO authorization as rates have been pre-negotiated. The fee for service model is more
expensive for the HMOs. As a result, capitation is preferred and more commonly used for private
employee managed healthcare.

Regardless of the chosen payment model, HMOs are businesses established for profit.
Accordingly, profit maximization is a major consideration in their negotiations with health care
providers. Perhaps HMOs would be constrained to negotiate more beneficial terms if the
employers who engaged their services insist on obtaining qualitative healthcare with the caveat
that they would dispense with their services if this is not provided. Unfortunately, this is
impracticable for those companies who own their own HMOs and have their employees
compulsorily enrolled without the option of seeking alternative care. This conflict of interest
makes it impossible for employees to question the quality of care being negotiated on their
behalf.

Under present models of managed healthcare, employees are not allowed to choose a health care
provider of their choice. In the past, they negotiated an amount for their health care and were
thus in charge of their own destinies as far as their health was concerned. Now they have no
choice but must choose from their HMOs list of registered health care providers. This power of
choice is further restricted where the HMO is the health insurance arm of the employer.
Although employees can change health care providers if dissatisfied with the services provided
to them. However their power of choice is constrained by the restriction of possible healthcare
providers to those chosen by their HMOs. Furthermore, there is a likelihood of dissatisfaction
with majority of healthcare providers because most healthcare providers operate under the
capitation model based on minimal rates agreed with the HMO. Not being party to negotiations
between their HMOs and the healthcare providers, these employees assume that they can request
and obtain every form of medical service. In reality, this is not the case as they can only enjoy
the services agreed on their behalf by the HMOs. Where further investigations such as ultrasound
scan or an xray are required, the time taken to obtain authorization becomes a major issue
especially in an emergency.

A major issue with managed care under the HMO system is the delay or non-payment of bills for
services rendered. This is more common with the fee for service model where the HMO bills
the employer for services rendered and then pays the health providers bill on behalf of the
employer. It would appear that the HMO being a third party appears not to understand the need
to sustain the managed healthcare relationship between healthcare providers and their patients,
hence the delay in making payments. This is further complicated by the fact that the healthcare
provider may have been required to pay upfront for services sourced from third party consultants
or laboratories and then bears the cost of the HMOs delay in making payment. The issue of late
payment does not arise for primary care under the capitation model because the premium is fixed
and payable as agreed regardless of the number of times enrollees require service. However,
where further treatment or investigation is required and authorized, HMOs still require extensive
medical reports and further re-negotiations when bills are sent for such treatments. Even when
these hurdles are crossed, payment is delayed or not made at all. These delays and refusals to
make agreed payments sometimes result in healthcare providers refusing to treat enrollees of
defaulting HMO. Such enrollees, through no fault of theirs, are caught in the middle with the
option to either bear their own costs as private patients or seek medical attention elsewhere.

7. Retaining staff in a trade down-turn or does the employer

(no information available in context to Nigeria/ Nigerian companies)
 8. Resorting to a short term hire and fire policy

Nigerian companies in the last few years have been rapidly embracing a new way of hiring
people. In a move often seen as deceptive they lure job seekers into believing that they will be
working for a known brand only to hand them an offer in a letter head of another company. To
most executive trainees, the feeling is quite surreal. They work in the same building, share
offices together, join the staff bus and eat in the staff canteen yet they are not a staff. This model
is getting increasingly common in Nigeria. Most organizations are getting smarter and looking
for ways to cut cost. Unlike when they have to operate heavy human resource structures,
businesses now operate a lean structure that will have them eliminate the burden of perks,
entitlements and allowances that they typically will incur. It also helps them deal with the thorny
issue of labor unions who they see as disruptive to their operations.

In-sourcing as it is commonly referred to, is defined as bringing a third-party outsourcer to work

inside a companys facility. From what was being adopted a few years ago by large corporations,
it is now widespread in Nigeria and cuts across industries. Most commercial banks have
completely in-sourced their tellers and front office operations. Oil and Gas companies are
thought to have pioneered this model over two decades ago and continue relying on it to hire and
fire. The Telecom industries adopted this about 5 years into the GSM era and have continued to
do so. More and more companies are relying on it as well with some outsourcing their entire
sales team.

While this is good for businesses, it certainly does not favor job seekers and to a larger extent the
Government. Since in-sourced staff of these companies are not full staff they expect no
promotions and can remain in one salary band for years or as long as they are contract staffs.
Nigerian labor law is still playing catch up in this regard and is not yet strong enough to curb
excesses and executive recklessness.

Hiring and firing on short notice has been accepted as one of the many quirks of early stage
startups. iRoko TV, Konga and Hotels.ng also executed broad-based retrenchments in their early
early stages in Nigeria, but Rocket Internet has always been questioned for its insensitivity.
In October 2015, Jumia,, an e-commerce company funded by the Rocket-Internet laid off 300 of
its workers in Nigeria. A former Jumia employee stated The line managers were tools to
perpetuate the acts, and the coup de grace would be when the line manager gets fired after he had
fired the other staff, I saw this happen in marketing and human resources while I was there.

In October 2012, Zenith Bank Plc flung the General Manager, Human Resources of the bank,
Mrs. Obi Ibekwe, from their main headquarters in the Victoria Island (the main business and
financial center in Nigeria) to Coker Zonal office (located in the suburbs of the mainland) to
head marketing operations, a move that left staff of the bank bewildered. The redeployment was
meant to shove her out of the way to enable the bank implement some unwholesome human
resources policies. Specifically, she opposed the recent recurrence of sacks by the bank and the
on-going recruitment of degree holders as contract staff. The upper layer of the management of
the bank was no longer comfortable with her professional stance on advising the bank against
hiring of degree holders as contract staff who were billed to earn Naira (Nigerian currency)
65,000 and her efforts of opposing the banks layoff of staff recently. She was said to have
opposed to such unsavory human resource practices even when the bank has been declaring huge
profits. According to a source conversant with the inner workings of the bank, the management
of the bank was beginning to see her insistence on ethical principles as acts of insubordination.
Zenith is one of the banks often cited for dishing out hefty targets to its staff, which industry
analysts believe expose staff, especially the female ones, to all sorts of abuses. The source said,
She advised the bank against hiring degree holders as contract staff meant to earn N65,000 per
month. She made a presentation to the management on the best practices of using HND and
OND graduates for contract staff and the implications of engaging degree graduates which might
be counterproductive; but, her advice was turned down. Also part of her sin is that recently, she
advised that management should not sack the workers that were laid off recently, querying why
the bank was sacking while it was making huge profits, even though many were undeclared, as
considerable chunk were diverted to expenses and later siphoned out.

The management brushed her advice aside and proceeded with the sack and kept her in the dark
on the number of the affected staff, criteria used in generating the list and their compensation
packages. Instead, she only got to know about the mass retrenchment when some of the affected
staff started getting SMS alerts and throngs of enquiries started flooding her desk.

The Nigerian Labour Act was passed into law in 1971. This law, in the twenty-first century, is
restrictive and outdated. The right of an employer to terminate or layoff an employee is a right
that is sacrosanct and deeply ingrained in labor law. This right however has been prone to abuse
by Nigerian employers where there seems to be the belief that an employer has the legal
authority to hire and fire at will. Also, some Nigerian employers need to reappraise their belief
that they have the legal authority to hire and fire at will. This is because such a belief or strategy
must inhibit the ability of a serious business owner to engage and retain the best people in a
massively aggressive and competitive global business environment. Lastly, the Nigerian
employee needs to review his or her expectation on job retention and security. The best of the
latter will only lie in employees continuously equipping themselves by bringing more value to
their individual environment, employment and country, in contrast to remaining on a job; this is
particular as the common law rule on the freedom of parties to easily enter into and exit from
contracts remains one of the basis canons of capitalism.

_____________________________________________________________________________
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Nigeria's growing number of female oil bosses

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