Non-Payment of Salaries: The Implication on the Legal, Economic and Social Rights of Workers in Nigeria

Abstract

Since the coming to power of the present administration in Nigeria on 29^th May, 2015, salaries of civil servants in not less than twenty-seven out of thirty-six States of the country and the Federal Government are in arrears for several months. The state governments that have failed and/or refused to pay workers’ salaries have gone cap in hand asking for bailout funds from the Federal Government to no avail. In the alternative, some have opted to down size the workforce or even embark on downward review of the national minimum wage payable to workers.In this article, we canvassed that, the failure of the Governors and the Federal Government of Nigeria to pay workers’ salaries had occasioned severe deprivation, mental and physical health challenges to most Nigerian civil servants and indeed any worker at that. This situation has reduced the lives of the workers in their employ to a bare life, or life not worth living, thus taking away their human dignity, due to their failure to pay the workers their salaries.These are human rights abuse. As a general rule, the duty to pay workers’ salaries and wages is derived from the terms of the contract of service expressly or impliedly or by statute. This duty which is implied at common law is applicable to every contract of employment. It is protected in Part I sections 15 and 17 of the Nigeria Labour Act and equally entrenched in various international human rights instruments to which Nigeria is a signatory.

Keywords: contract of service, non-payment of salaries, human right abuse, Nigeria constitution.