The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has challenged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to lead efforts to expand Nigeria’s legal framework on workplace protection to cover workers in the informal, gig and platform economies. The post Gig economy: NSITF tasks NBA to expand workers’ legal protection appeared first on Tribune Online .
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has challenged the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to lead efforts to expand Nigeria’s legal framework on workplace protection to cover workers in the informal, gig and platform economies.
The fund said the changing nature of work had created new categories of workers who risk being left outside the traditional employer-employee relationship recognised by existing labour laws.
Managing Director/Chief Executive of the NSITF, Mr Oluwaseun Faleye, made the call at the 66th Annual General Conference of the NBA in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he spoke on the theme: “Beyond Limits: Expanding the Legal Frontiers of Workplace Protection and Social Security in Nigeria.”
Faleye, represented by the General Manager, Abuja Region of the fund, Mrs Bridget Ashang, said the legal profession has a critical role to play in ensuring that workplace protection kept pace with changes in the labour market.
He urged the NBA to deploy advocacy, legal advice, corporate audits and test-case litigation to broaden the legal definitions of “employee,” “employer” and “workplace” to reflect emerging forms of work.
He said, the legal framework should evolve to accommodate informal-sector workers, gig workers and platform workers, among others.
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“Legal frontiers should be expanded from protecting only ‘formal sector’ to ‘ALL,’” Faleye stated, stressing that the law must respond to the realities of the contemporary labour ecosystem.
He also called for the exploration of platform liability, particularly in addressing questions of responsibility for workers operating through digital platforms.
The NSITF boss urged the NBA to support the ratification and domestication of relevant International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and standards to establish minimum benchmarks for workplace protection and social security in Nigeria.
He said lawyers could help bridge existing gaps by advocating reforms, providing legal guidance and pursuing strategic litigation capable of establishing precedents for the protection of workers in emerging forms of employment.
Faleye noted that social security, as defined by the ILO, provides protection against risks including old age, unemployment, sickness, employment injury, maternity, invalidity and loss of a breadwinner.
He, however, observed that the existing legal framework still largely revolves around formal employment, leaving significant gaps in protection for workers outside the conventional employment structure.
Furthermore, the NSITF chief executive described social security as an issue of social justice, rather than charity, stressing that workers deserved protection against risks associated with their livelihoods.
“Social security is not charity. It is social justice,” he said, adding that the ECS existed to ensure that “no worker falls alone.”
He challenged the NBA and law firms to lead by example by conducting self-audits and ensuring compliance with relevant labour and social-security laws.
According to him, the drafting of laws establishing government agencies and other institutions must also consciously avoid excluding categories of workers.
He said stronger legal and social deterrence was necessary to discourage non-compliance with workplace protection and social-security obligations.
“When a lawyer speaks, everyone usually listens,” Faleye told the lawyers, urging the NBA to use its influence to advance reforms that would guarantee wider protection for Nigerian workers.
He said social security was a way of recognising the dignity of labour and protecting the value of workers’ contributions to the economy.
“Social security is how we honour that sweat. It is how we say: Your work has dignity and your life has value,” he stated.
Faleye said the NSITF and the legal profession had complementary roles in protecting workers, adding: “Without the law, the Fund is silent. Without the Fund, the law is empty. Together, we can write a new social contract for Nigerian workers.”
He warned that failure to expand the legal frontiers of workplace protection would continue to facilitate exclusion, urging the NBA to deploy the law as an instrument of social change.
