Termination of Contract of Employment with statutory flavour and the remedy of Re-Instatement: Curtailing summary and unlawful dismissal.

Abstract

Employment is a relationship between two parties, usually based on a contract where work is paid for and whose construction or determination is founded on due notice of the parties thereto. The law is well settled that if, where there is an ordinary contractual relationship of master and servant, the master terminates the contract the servant cannot obtain an order of certiorari or reinstatement. If the master rightfully ends the contract, there can be no complaint: if the master wrongfully ends the contract then the servant can pursue a claim for damages." Employment under public authorities, however, stands on a different footing from an ordinary master and servant relationship. This paper begins with the position of the Nigerian law as regards categories of contract and the implication of each category of contracts of employment .It examines the nature of contract of employment and the special nature of employments with statutory flavour, it focuses on the clarification of the definition of an employment with statutory flavor drawing on decisions at various levels of law. The paper also examines and discusses the remedies available to a wrongly dismissed employee whose employment enjoys statutory flavour via an examination of some popular cases known to the Nigerian Law.

Key words: Contract of employment, termination of employment, statutory flavour, unlawful dismissal, re-instatement