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6 Tuma L. Rev. 69 (2020)
Balancing Contending Interests Associated with Employment Reference under Nigeria Employment Relations

handle is hein.journals/tuma6 and id is 79 raw text is: BALANCING CONTENDING INTERESTS ASSOCIATED WITH EMPLOYMENT REFERENCE UNDER NIGERIA EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS David Tarh-Akong E yongndi* ABSTRACT In giving a reference, several interests are involved, that of the giver, the person it relates to, the person to whom it is given and the sociefy at large. The law protects all these interests and where there is an infraction, legal remedy may be sought by the aggrieved pary. Where an employer is required to make a reference, he has a duty to exercise reasonable care by ensuring that the reference is a true, honest and a fair representation offacts. This article examines the dug of a Nigerian employer to give reference on an employee or ex-employee by reviewing the Court of Appeal decision in M.T.S. Ltd. v. Akinwunmi vis-d-vis the position of the law in United States of America (US) and New Mexico and the lessons Nigeria can learn thereof It founds that where the employer knowing or negligently misrepresents fact (s) and caused injury to a person who acted on it, he will be liable in torts for either negligent or intentional misrepresentation. In US and Mexico, the referee is under an afirmaie dury to disclose while the employee has a riht of protection of prospective employment oppor/tniy. It further found that in US, employment reference has a statutory framework unlike Nigeria where it is a matter of judicial interpretation. The article recommends measures the employer can adopt to absolve liabiliy while balancing the competing interests in making a reference. Keywords: Contract, Employer, Defamation, Negligence, and Tort 1. INTRODUCTION In employment relations in Nigeria and indeed all over the world today, an employer may be required to make a reference on an employee or ex-employee by either another employer or an interested third party who intends to deal with the employee or ex-employee.241 Ordinarily, the employer or ex-employer is not duty bound to make such a reference as was held in the case of Carroll v. Bird.242 Here the wife of the plaintiff was dismissed by her employer the defendant. The wife applied to work for another employer who was willing to employ her if and only if the defendant would give her reference that her character was satisfactory. * LL. B (Ions) UNICAL, LL.M (Ibadan) BL, Lecturer, Department of Private and Commercial Law, Bowen University, Iwo, Osun State, Nigeria. Email: eyongndidavid? gmail.com or david.eyongndi(?fbowen.edu.ng Telephone: +2348093618996. David Eyongndi is at present, a PhD Student at University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. His areas of research interest are Labour and Industrial Relations Law, International Commercial Arbitration and Private International Law. 241 Oji A. Elizabeth and Amucheazi D. Offornzee, Employment and Labour Law in Nigeria (Lagos, Mbeyi and Associates (Nig.) Plc., 2015) 122. 242 (1800) 2 Esp. 201.