The President of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, Hon. Justice Benedict Kanyip, PhD, OFR, has struck out the case instituted by the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC) against the Nigeria Civil Service Union (NCSU) and others, holding that the action was incompetent.
In his ruling, Justice Kanyip emphasised that under the law, employers are passive parties in trade union recognition and jurisdictional disputes. He stated that the Council’s role is limited to being informed of union activities, particularly where such activities occur outside working hours, and that seeking to challenge unionisation amounted to unlawful interference in trade union affairs.
The Court held that issues of jurisdictional scope and deduction of check‑off dues are matters for rival unions or individual employees who opt out in writing, not for employers. Justice Kanyip reiterated that recognition of a registered trade union under the Trade Unions Act is automatic, and deduction of check‑off dues is compulsory once eligibility is established.
Delivering his decision, the Court’s President noted: “In questions of jurisdictional scope between trade unions and recognition disputes, an employer is often a passive party and may not necessarily be a party to the suit; yet the outcome of the suit may be enforceable against the employer. The claimant cannot, as a claimant, pose the questions it did in this suit. It can only be called upon to answer as a defendant. Certainly not as a claimant. I so hold.”
Accordingly, the suit filed by RMRDC was struck out for want of competence.
