The civil jurisdiction of the national industrial court under the 1999 constitution of the Federal of Nigeria (third alteration) act 2010 and pre-2010 fundamental right labour suits.

Abstract

This paper reviews the Court of Appeal decision in Standard Chartered Bank v. Adegbite where the court held that the jurisdiction of the National Industrial Court (NIC) in Sections 254C(1)(a)(d)(g) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Third Alteration) Act and 7(1) (a) (i) and 11 of the National Industrial Court Act, 2006, the NIC does not have exclusive original jurisdiction over fundamental right enforcement proceedings arising from employment disputes commenced at the High Court prior to the enactment of the 1999 CFRN (Third Alteration) Act. Thus, such matters, in the absence of Sections 254C of 1999 CFRN (Third Alteration) Act providing for abatement, do not abate and the Courts specified in Sections 251, 257 and 272 of the 1999 CFRN pursuant to Section 46 of the same Constitution notwithstanding Section 254C (b) the 1999 CFRN (Third Alteration) Act have jurisdiction. This paper adopts the doctrinal methodology, it argues that this decision clearly defeats the intendment of the draftsmen, and has created a specie of labour cases known as “pre-1999 CFRN (Third Alteration) Act 2010 fundamental rights labour cases “appealable to the supreme Court contrary to the Supreme Court decision in Skye Bank v. Iwu where all labour matters ought to end at the Court of Appeal. it recommends that Section 254C should be further amended to include abatement of all pending suits and same transferred to the NIC to give effect to the intention of the legislature in enacting the 1999 CFRN (Third Alteration) Act 2010.