Remote Work, Nigerian Law, and Digital Employee Rights
Working from home is easy. Knowing where the law stands is not.
I still remember the first time someone told me they had been “laid off” over Zoom. No warning. No HR office. Just a calendar invite, a calm voice, and an email five minutes later saying, “Your access has been revoked.”
That moment summed up remote work in Nigeria: convenient, flexible, and legally messy.
Remote work has quietly become normal. People now work for Lagos companies from Osogbo. Some never meet their colleagues in person. Others don’t even know where their “office” is anymore. But the law hasn’t disappeared just because the office did.
Remote Work Isn’t Illegal, But It’s Not Automatic Either
There’s a belief that once a company allows remote work, it becomes a right. That’s not true.
Under Nigerian labour law, what really matters is still the employment contract.
If your contract mentions a physical office, that clause doesn’t vanish because Slack was installed.
Many disputes start here.
Someone assumes remote work is permanent. Management assumes it’s temporary. Then productivity drops, instructions clash, and suddenly HR starts quoting a contract nobody read carefully in the first place.
If remote work matters, it must be written clearly, location, hours, expectations, even power supply realities.
Monitoring: Where Employers Usually Cross the Line
This is where things get uncomfortable. Yes, employers can monitor work. Nobody disputes that. But some companies don’t stop at work.
There have been cases where:
- personal WhatsApp chats were reviewed
- laptops were accessed remotely without notice
- screenshots were taken every few minutes
That’s where the problem starts.
Monitoring must be disclosed. Quiet surveillance almost always backfires. Even when the intention is productivity, the method can create legal exposure, especially when personal devices are involved.
Remote work doesn’t turn employees into property.
Data Privacy Is No Longer an “IT Issue”
Once work moved into bedrooms and cafés, data followed.
Customer details now sit on personal laptops. Contracts are downloaded on home Wi-Fi. Sometimes, sensitive files are shared on informal platforms just to “move fast.”
But Nigerian data protection rules don’t care where the laptop is located.
If a breach happens, the employer still answers questions. That’s why remote work without clear data rules is risky.
Not dramatic risky, quiet, expensive risky.
The BYOD Problem Nobody Plans For
“Bring your own device” sounds harmless until employment ends.
Who owns the work files on a personal laptop?
Can the company wipe the device?
What if private photos are affected?
Many Nigerian companies have no answers because they never planned for remote work becoming permanent. And the law doesn’t automatically favour employers here.
Ambiguity is dangerous.
Work Hours Have Become Invisible
One thing remote work did very well was erase closing time.
Emails now arrive at 11pm.
Messages come in on Sundays.
Availability is confused with obligation.
But legally, work hours still exist. Rest still matters. Burnout still counts. Remote work doesn’t cancel labour protections, it only makes abuse less visible.
This is where future disputes will come from.
Cross-Border Remote Work Is the Next Headache
People now work remotely across borders without thinking much about it.
But jurisdiction doesn’t disappear because the work is digital.
Someone still pays tax somewhere.
Some law still applies.
Most people realise this only when a dispute arises.
Final Thought
Remote work feels informal, but the legal consequences are not.
The biggest mistake Nigerian employers and employees make is assuming flexibility means “no rules.” It doesn’t. It only means the rules have changed location.
And anyone who ignores that now will learn it later, the hard way.
