INTEGRATING JUDICIAL PROTECTION FOR ENHANCED FEMALE WORKERS’ FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS IN THE NIGERIAN WORKPLACE ENVIRONMENT

The current discourse on the conception of equality by diverse global social and political forces have impacted the current world focus on the necessity to offer legal protection to those considered vulnerable in the workplace. Matching side by side – almost to a hitherto unmatched degree in labour law, are the models of judicial backing and transnational labour standards established in many foreign jurisdictions. All over the world - Nigeria inclusive - female workers are considered as part of the vulnerable person in the society requiring greater protection, especially in the workplace. In Nigeria, this category of workers, on account of their multiple natural and societal responsibilities as wives/mothers, are often exposed to various human rights breaches, which inevitably gives rise to the need for legislative and judicial guarantees against derogation of rights and diverse forms of abuses in the workplace. This paper, adopts desk-based method in examining various forms of female employees’ rights that are often violated at the workplace, the precipitants of the violation and as well as assess the adequacy or otherwise of statutory protection provided. The paper primarily focuses on the adequacy of judicial efforts directed at the reduction in the violation of female employees’ rights in workplaces in Nigeria this is achieved through an evaluation of selected decisions of Nigerian courts particularly, the National Industrial Court of Nigeria (NICN) and the Court of Appeal (CA) on the matter. The study discovered that, surprisingly, some of female employees’ workplace fundamental rights violations are provided statutory fillip as well as cultural nourishments. Further, that Nigerian courts, particularly the NICN and the CA have frowned at such violation and have provided judicial solatium in the form of award of damages to identified victims, even though, oftentimes the damages awarded do not have deterrent effects on account of their paltry nature. The paper makes some vital recommendations which are both immediate and futuristic. The immediate recommendation is the award of punitive damages by the court to achieve deterrence while for the future, a review of obsolete law for an egalitarian and comprehensive protection should be considered.