Japa: Employers Seek Legal Protection Against Workers’ Sudden Exits

Employers across Nigeria and other African countries have called for stronger labour laws to protect businesses against employees who resign shortly after receiving employer-sponsored training or use their organisations as stepping stones to secure jobs abroad.

The employers, alongside other stakeholders from Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya, also called for tougher sanctions against violations of labour and employment laws, arguing that businesses suffer significant financial losses when workers abandon their jobs after benefiting from investments in their skills and capacity development.

They made the call at a programme organised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA), where participants examined ways to strengthen labour migration governance and promote fair recruitment practices.

The stakeholders expressed concern over the growing practice of employees resigning shortly after their employers have sponsored their professional training or using the experience and skills acquired at the expense of local businesses to secure employment opportunities overseas.

They argued that employers who invest heavily in workers’ training should have legal protection against sudden resignations that undermine business operations and result in financial losses.

According to the participants, employees should be required to sign undertakings before undergoing employer-sponsored training, committing to refund three times the training costs if they resign without fulfilling agreed service obligations.

They maintained that appropriate legal provisions would discourage employees from exploiting employers’ investments while ensuring that businesses are not left to bear the financial burden of training workers who subsequently leave.

The stakeholders, however, also called for strengthened labour migration governance, fair recruitment practices and improved protection of migrant workers’ rights.

The national project coordinator of the ILO Action Project, Grace Orshio, made the call while speaking on the theme, “From Policy to Practice: Strengthening Employers’ Capacity to Effectively Engage on Labour Migration Governance”.

Orshio said the programme provided an opportunity for employers and recruiters from Nigeria and Ghana to explore practical approaches to implementing fair recruitment principles.

Representing the ILO Country Director, Dr Vanessa Phala-Moyo, she explained that fair recruitment involved ensuring that recruitment processes complied with national laws and international labour standards, without discrimination and with respect for human dignity and human rights.

She noted that recruiters participating in the programme already had some level of awareness of fair recruitment issues, particularly those belonging to organisations responsible for regulating recruitment practices.

However, she expressed concern over how to address the activities of unregulated and unlicensed recruiters who engage in unfair recruitment practices.

According to her, regulated recruiters are already aligning with the fair recruitment initiative, the ILO’s General Principles and Operational Guidelines on Fair Recruitment, as well as guidelines on recruitment fees and related costs.

The ILO coordinator stressed the need to ensure that fair recruitment principles moved beyond policy commitments to practical implementation, particularly in protecting migrant workers from exploitation.

Citing ILO estimates, the programme noted that there were 272 million international migrants and 169 million migrant workers globally, with women accounting for nearly half of all international migrants.

On her part, the resource person, Margaret Mugwanja, who delivered a presentation on regional good practice exchange and recruiter-led fair recruitment practices, highlighted the challenges confronting recruitment agencies in implementing fair recruitment standards.

She identified recruitment costs, market demand, workers’ trust and protection abroad as major challenges requiring practical interventions.

On recruitment costs, Mugwanja said employers should bear recruitment fees and related expenses, including charges arising from third-party services.

She explained that recruitment agencies sometimes lose business opportunities when clients prioritise speed and low prices over safeguards and service quality.

On workers’ trust, she observed that fee-free recruitment arrangements could appear unfamiliar to some job seekers, while language, literacy, gender and digital-access barriers could prevent workers from making informed decisions.

She also identified protection abroad as a major concern, noting that differences in legal systems, uneven enforcement of labour regulations and limited contact with workers could make monitoring and access to remedies difficult.

Mugwanja further highlighted tools that could help recruitment agencies improve their operations, including client due diligence and regulatory dialogue.

The programme also examined the relationship between labour migration, fair recruitment and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Under Target 8.8, the agenda seeks to protect workers’ rights, promote safe working environments and ensure the protection of all workers, including migrants, particularly women and those in precarious employment.

Target 8.7 calls for immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking, while Target 10.7 seeks to facilitate orderly, safe and responsible migration through well-managed migration policies.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, under Objective 6, also promotes fair and ethical recruitment practices and decent working conditions.

The programme identified the growing number of formal and informal recruitment actors as a major challenge in the labour recruitment landscape, noting that recruiters operated along a continuum of compliance and non-compliance with International Labour Standards.

While recruitment practices aligned with international labour standards promote decent work and fair recruitment, the programme identified deception, restrictions on workers’ mobility, underpayment and recruitment fees as major abuses.

It further warned that forced labour and human trafficking constituted serious violations of human and labour rights, while abusive and fraudulent recruitment practices remained significant concerns requiring stronger regulatory action.