(1) Except where a collective agreement provides otherwise, every employer shall, unless a worker has broken his contract, provide work suitable to the worker's capacity on every day (except rest days and public holidays) on which the worker presents himself and is fit for work; and, if the employer fails to provide work as aforesaid, he shall pay to the worker in respect of each day on which he has so failed wages at the same rate as would be payable if the worker had performed a day's work:
Provided that-
(a) where, owing to a temporary emergency or other circumstances beyond the employer's control (the period of which shall not exceed one week or such longer period as an authorized labour officer may allow in any particular case), the employer is unable to provide work, the worker shall be entitled to those wages only on the first day of the period in question; and
(b) this subsection shall not apply where the worker is suspended from work as a punishment for a breach of discipline or any other offence.
(2) Where a worker is employed in any agricultural undertaking on a plantation on a contract of service under which he earns wages calculated by reference to the number of days' work performed in each month of his service, the employer shall provide the worker with work suitable to his capacity on not less than twenty-four days in each month during the whole of which he is so employed; and, if the employer fails to provide work as aforesaid on any of those twenty-four days on which the worker presents himself and is fit for work, he shall pay to the worker in respect of each such day wages at the same rates as would be payable if the worker had performed a day's work:
Provided that, in computing twenty-four days for the purposes of this subsection, account shall not be taken of more than six days in any one week.
(3) Any dispute between an employer and a worker as to the worker's fitness for work under subsection (1) or (2) of this section may be referred to an authorized labour officer, who may take such medical or other advice as he thinks appropriate and whose decision shall be final.
Section 17 of the Labour Act in Nigeria
Act structure