Abstract
Triangular Employment Relationship (TER) is a situation where an employer hire persons for the use of another. TER, is a global phenomenon as acknowledged by the International Labour Organisation (ILO). In Nigeria, its predominance is in the banking, oil and gas sectors. The main challenge with this employment practice, aside the issue of when does it exist, has always been: between the Agent and End-User employer, who is the actual employer of the employee (s) for the purposes of liability. Recently, the Court of Appeal (CA) adjudicated over this subject in Luck Guard Ltd. v. Adariku & Ors. This paper adopts comparative method juxtaposing the CA perspective to TER vis-à-vis the stance of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) against the backdrop of ILO prescription to ascertain compliance level. It discusses the impact of the decision on labour and employment relations in Nigeria. On comparative basis, it examined the practice and legal framework on TER in Nigeria with South Africa, Namibia, and Ghana aimed at drawing lessons for Nigeria as well as interrogates the stance of the ILO towards TER. It found that the CA’s decision in the Adariku’s Case was reached per incuriam unlike that taken by the NICN, the position taken by the CA in the Adariku’s Case is otiose to the ILO’s prescription on TER as well as the practice in South Africa, Namibia and Ghana. It recommends that the CA should jettison the position in subsequent cases and an urgent review of Nigerian law to conform to international minimum best standards on regulation of TER prescribed by the ILO and practiced by progressive jurisdictions.