ESTHER EGBE reports on a recent legal seminar in Lagos, which provided a platform for practitioners in the field to brainstorm
Legal experts and other professionals who have one thing or another to do with the legal profession had a rare opportunity of exchanging ideas recently, during the one-day public enlightenment symposium on the status, Power and jurisdiction of the National industrial court.
The event which held at the Airport hotel in the heart of Ikeja, the Lagos state capital was an initiative of the Gani Adetola-|Kassim & Co, in collaboration with the National Industrial Court.
It gave participants the opportunity to listen to viewpoints on such current legal and social issues of the constitution of the country, child abuse and the issues of healthcare delivery.
Among the experts who presented papers at the forum are the Chief Judge of the National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adeniran Adejumo, Hon. Justice Benedict Bakwaph, Chief G.A. Adetola-Kaseem, and Professor Chioma Kanu Agomo, a judge at the NIC.
Presenting a paper at the seminar, which happened to be the first, Hon. Justice Benedict Bakwaph, submitted that jurisdiction is the lifeline of all trials, as aaccording to him,. a trial without jurisdiction is a nullity.
According to him, the limits of the jurisdiction of any court of law can, therefore, be a knotty issue as the same is true of especially the NIC where in majority of the causes that come before the court.
In the opinion of the expert, notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act or any other enactment or law, the National Assembly may by an Act prescribe that any matter under subsection (1) (a) of this section may go through the process of conciliation or arbitration before such matter is heard by the Court.
Exploring this point, he said that the Court shall, in exercising its jurisdiction or any of the powers conferred upon it by this Act or any other enactment or law, have due regard to good or international best practice in labour or industrial relations and what amounts to good or international best practice in labour or industrial relations shall be a question of fact.
“From the totality of these and other provisions of the NIC Act, and what has evolved as practice in the NIC, the jurisdiction of the NIC can be divided into two, namely, original (where litigants can directly come to the NIC) and appellate (where litigants may have to go through the processes of Part 1 of the Trade Disputes Act (TDA) and ending up with a referral of the matter to the NIC by the Minister of Labour acting pursuant to the provision of section 14 of the TDA). It must be pointed out, however, that an improper referral of a matter by the Minister of Labour, as where the referral was made when there was no objection against the award of the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP) in issue, the NIC will decline jurisdiction to entertain the matter as was the case of Steel and Engineering Workers Union of Nigeria v. Avon Crowncaps & Containers (Nigeria) Plc”
On the knotty issue of the interpretation jurisdiction of the NIC, he submitted that the interpretation jurisdiction relates to the interpretation of any collective agreement, terms of settlement of any labour or organizational dispute, any award made by an arbitral tribunal in respect of a labour or organizational dispute, any trade union constitution, and any award or judgment of the NIC.
He explained that under the old dispensation, a trade union constitution was not one of the documents that the NIC could interpret in its original jurisdiction. That this has been provided for under section 7 of the NIC Act makes it novel; and quite rightly litigants have approached the court to have trade union constitutions interpreted”.
In conclusion, he said the the NIC Act and now the Third alteration to the 1999 Constitution have made giant strides in shaping the way in which labour disputes would be resolved in the country, adding that the limits of the law are yet to be known.
In his words: “ But from what has been said so far, a good deal will be expected in terms of judicial interpretation of the respective provisions of the Act and the Constitution. The way for the resolution of labour disputes in the country has now been fully charted”
Chief G.A. Adetola-Kaseem, in his presentation, said the first point to note is that the National Industrial Court is at once a court of first instance with original jurisdiction in certain matters and also an Appellate Court with appellate jurisdiction in others.
According to him, the matter of accessing or approaching the Court will therefore depend upon whether the court has original or appellate jurisdiction over the matter in question.
Gani. Adetola-Kaseem, SAN said there are two categories of appellate matters - those arising from Objections to Awards by the arbitral tribunals being referred to the Court through the Minister of Labour and those in which the parties have a direct right of access to the court. We shall treat the different categories in turn.
He said by the provision of Order 8 of NICR a defendant or respondent served with an originated process is required to enter appearance either personally or through his legal practitioner within the time prescribed in the originating process or where no time is prescribed within 14 days of service of the originating process.
According to him, the Memorandum which must be signed by either the party or his legal practitioner must contain the full address for service.
“Also, by the provision of Rule 2 of Order 9, where a party served with a Notice of Appeal or a Notice of Cross Appeal together with the Record of Appeal and other accompanying documents as stipulated in Order 3 of NICR, intends to contest the Appeal or Cross-Appeal, such party shall not later than 14 days or any other time prescribed for response, file a Respondent’s Brief of Argument or Cross-Respondent’s Brief of Argument as the case may be”.
He added by saying that “By the provision of the proviso to Order 25 which gives the court discretion to extend time for taking any step, a party who defaults in filing any process or taking any step as prescribed by the rules or ordered by court, is liable to pay a penalty of N50 for each day of default.
By the provision of section 254E (1) of the Amended Constitution, the court can sit as a single judge or in a panel or not more than three judges the President of the Court may direct. Sub-section (2) of that section also authorizes the President to sit as a single judge or assign another single judge to hear and determine a criminal matter failing within criminal jurisdiction of the court”.
He concluded his presentation by saying that there is no doubting that NIC occupiers a strategic position within the economy and the judicial system and that this makes it imperative for all its economy and the judicial system.
He said there is need for people to understand the nature of jurisdiction, powers, practice and procedure of the court in order to derive maximum benefit in their application, arguing that this is the essence of this presentation and the Symposium.
Professor Chioma Kanu Agomo Said during the enlightenment symposium that one legislation that has done with one stroke of the pen what had hitherto been thought to be impossible by the legal and judicial community and the National Industrial Court is at the center of this change. This paper will highlight some of these changes with particular reference to the status of the Court under the new dispensation the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 has been amended include the National Industrial Court as a Superior Court of Record and also It is clearly lays to rest all the controversy relating to the status of the court.
Heexpressed that an appeal shall lie from the decision of the National Court as of right to the Court of Appeal on questions of fundamental rights as contained in Chapter IV of this Constitution as it relates to matters upon which the National Industrial Court has jurisdiction.as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly : provided that where an Act or Law prescribes that an appeal shall lie from the decisions of the national Industrial Court to the Court of Appeal, such appeal shall be with the leave of the Court of appeal.Without prejudice to the provisions of section 254C (5) of this Act, the decision of the Court of Appeal in respect of any appeal arising from any civil jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court shall be final”.
President of the National Industrial Court, Justice Babatunde Adeniran Adejumo
Said that it is now constitutionally clear that only qualified legal practitioners with considerable knowledge and experience in the law and practice of industrial relations and employment conditions in Nigeria can be appointed as judges of the Court. The Trade Disputes Act and the National Industrial Court Act. 2006 made provisions for the appointment of non lawyers as Judges of the Court. This had always been a sore point which those against the repositioning of the NIC as a court of superior record used to support their argument.
He added that the National Industrial Court had been given a golden opportunity to inject a new life capable of growth into our labour and industrial relations laws and practice. This development should also help in developing a new crop of lawyers for the bar and bench knowledgeable and teachable and the organic world or work, the National Industrial Court shall have and exercise jurisdiction to the exclusion of any court in civil causes and matters, relating to or connected with any labor, employment, trade unions, industrial relations and matters arising from workplace, the conditions of service, including health, safety, welfare of labor, employees, worker and matters incidental .
And also arising from factories Act, Trade Disputes Act, Employees compensation Act, Law relating to labor, employment, industrial relations, workplace or any other enactment replacing then Act or Laws
Order restraining any person or body from taking part in any strike or lock-out or any industrial action, conduct in contemplation or a strike, lock-out, industrial action and matters connected therewith. Connected with any dispute arising from national minimum wage unfair labor practice or international best practices in labour,employment and industrial relations matters,discrimination or sexual harassment at workplace,Child labour,human trafficking
The Court can now commit for contempt and even imprisonment as the case may be. It is an enormous responsibility and a good thing.
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