Employee Rights: Employers offering Employees the Right to Resign or Be Terminated

Abstract

Recent developments on the application of international best practices to labour and employment disputes by Nigerian courts have raised several issues that require pragmatic solutions from employers. For instance, when an employer decides to terminate an employee's contract of employment without notice, the employer is generally faced with options of whether (A) to adhere to the common law principle of compensating the employee with a salary in lieu of notice, as held in Dangote v. Ager, or (B) to comply with international best practices by compensating the employee based on the duration of the employment outlined in the contract. 

Reflecting on Adewunmi v. Atlas Copco, this article considers the changing judicial attitude to employer right of termination currently been shaped by the application of international best practices, and the current legal landscape on remedies in cases of employment termination without notice.