Litigation of Employee Loans as a Labour Dispute: Comparing the Law and Practice in Nigeria with other Jurisdictions

Employee loan means a loan given by an employer to an employee for specific reasons with the expectation that such loan will be repaid to the employer in part of full and usually by periodic deductions from the employee’s salary/wages. The rationale for employee loans is that financial insecurity can be a productivity killer. However, if disputes arise in relation to the recovery of such loan, to which court should the employer seek remedy? In this article, I have attempted an answer to this question by comparing the law and practice of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria on recovery of employee loans with what obtains in other jurisdictions.