employment contract
An employment contract sets out the terms of your job in writing, and a startling number of Nigerians have never been given one.
In plain English
A great many Nigerians work for years on the strength of a conversation and a WhatsApp message, and then find out what they actually agreed to on the day it matters.
An employment contract sets out the terms. Your role, your pay, your hours, your notice period, your leave entitlement, and what happens if either side ends the arrangement.
Without one, everything is disputed at exactly the moment you are least able to fight. Was that bonus contractual or discretionary? Are you owed one month's notice or three? Is the pension contribution being made? Are those overtime hours paid or expected?
Get it in writing. Read it before you sign, not after something goes wrong.
Look particularly at the notice period, which decides how much warning you get and how much you must give. At the termination clause. At any restrictive covenant preventing you from working for a competitor, which can be a serious constraint on your future. And at whether the pension and tax deductions described actually match what appears on your payslip.
If your employer will not give you a contract, that refusal is itself the information you needed.
You resign expecting one month's notice and are told your contract requires three. You have never seen the contract. The employer produces one you signed without reading, and the new job cannot wait three months.
Questions people ask
What should be in an employment contract?
Role, pay, hours, notice period, leave, benefits, and termination terms. Anything you were promised verbally should be in it, or it does not exist.
What is a restrictive covenant?
A clause limiting where you can work after leaving, or which clients you may approach. Read it carefully, because it constrains your next job.
What if I have never been given one?
Ask, in writing, and keep the request. An employer unwilling to put terms in writing has told you something important about how disputes will go.
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