ILO Prescriptionon Triangular Employment Relationship and the Nigerian Court of Appeal Response: A Comparative Exegesis with Selected Jurisdictions
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Date
2026
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Publisher
Adapt University Press
Abstract
Triangular Employment Relationship (TER) is a situation
where an employer hire persons for the use of another. TER, is a global
phenomenon as acknowledged by the International Labour Organisation
(ILO). In Nigeria, its predominance is in the banking, oil and gas sectors.
The main challenge with this employment practice, aside the issue of
when does it exist, has always been: between the Agent and End-User
employer, who is the actual employer of the employee (s) for the purposes
of liability. Recently, the Court of Appeal (CA) adjudicated over this
subject in Luck Guard Ltd. v. Adariku & Ors. This paper adopts
comparative method juxtaposing the CA perspective to TER vis-à-vis the
stance of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) against the
backdrop of ILO prescription to ascertain compliance level. It discusses
the impact of the decision on labour and employment relations in Nigeria.
On comparative basis, it examined the practice and legal framework on
TER in Nigeria with South Africa, Namibia, and Ghana aimed at drawing
lessons for Nigeria as well as interrogates the stance of the ILO towards
TER. It found that the CA’s decision in the Adariku’s Case was reached
per incuriam unlike that taken by the NICN, the position taken by the CA
in the Adariku’s Case is otiose to the ILO’s prescription on TER as well
as the practice in South Africa, Namibia and Ghana. It recommends that
the CA should jettison the position in subsequent cases and an urgent
review of Nigerian law to conform to international minimum best
standards on regulation of TER prescribed by the ILO and practiced by
progressive jurisdictions.
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E-Journal of International and Comparative Labour Studies