Any work style that takes place outside the typical office setting and allows employees to engage with essential stakeholders using SMAC (social, mobile, analytics, and cloud) digital platforms is called remote working. The panelists assert that stakeholders must be flexible, inventive, and agile because changes to remote working after COVID will involve both the business and the employee.

Employment contracts, as well as statutory and regulatory requirements, influence the interaction between employers and employees. However, given the unusual nature of the current situation, several adjustments made by employers have been invalidated. For instance, some businesses have required workers to take time off because they cannot perform their jobs effectively from a distance, but this is often against the law and not permitted by the employment contract.

After the epidemic, more businesses are anticipated to permit employees to work from home. More organizations are sure to follow suit as large corporations like Twitter set the example, mainly because the lockdown has made more employees aware that most activities can be completed remotely. But switching to a remote team has its challenges. Here are some crucial legal concerns for organizations looking to build a remote team because remote staffing may present significant legal issues for employers.

The most challenging aspect of remote employment is data protection. Nigeria’s 2019 Nigeria Data Production Regulation governs the gathering, processing, and storage of data. The policy lays out guidelines for how businesses must process personal data and imposes severe penalties on violators. The regulation requires organizations to create security measures to protect personal data, such as installing firewalls, putting access controls in place, encrypting personal data, and developing internal policies for handling personal data to guard against theft, cyberattacks, manipulations, and environmental risks.

Remote staffing increases the risk of employees or third parties processing personal information improperly, including information about all employees, vendors, subscribers, and clients. Additionally, data security will be less under the supervision of data protection professionals. This could subject the company to additional criminal charges and fines by the law. To avoid breaking the law, businesses with remote employees must ensure that they have proper data security and remote access rules. This can entail restricting employees’ access to personal information, giving them tools and facilities designated just for business, equipping their devices with anti-malware software, and establishing internal penalties for data breaches.

Employers must decide where to send income tax payments for their telecommuting workers, who can opt to work from any state in Nigeria or anywhere in the world. Finding the appropriate tax authorities where a firm or business entity is based in Lagos and has personnel residing in and working from Jos, Abia, Ekiti, or Benin may be difficult when using remote staffing. For instance, Ghana, the United States, and South Africa.

According to the Personal Income Tax Act, the taxpayer’s residence determines which tax authority should receive PAYE tax payments. An individual who lives in Lagos and receives money from a Kano-based business must pay his taxes to the Lagos Internal Revenue Services (LIRS).

The law also stipulates that the employee’s primary residence, if they have two homes, shall be the one closest to their primary workplace. Thus, Kano will be considered the employee’s primary residence even if they split their time between Kano and Lagos.

According to the law, personnel physically present in Nigeria for at least 183 days (including leave and temporary absence) in any 12 months are deemed residents. But what happens in a remote work environment when a worker for a Nigerian company decides to go permanently to another nation? Employers in the distant past had difficulty navigating the terrain of tax compliance.

Though large corporations can afford to do so, doing so may only sometimes be the most cost-effective action. The simple solution for businesses may be to hire such individuals as independent contractors and enter into separate work contract arrangements with them. This shifts the responsibility for calculating and remitting personal income tax from employers to employees. Employers must also find out if there are any existing tax treaties between the nation where the organization is located and the country where the employee resides if the person lives abroad. In cases where the tax has been paid to the “wrong” tax authority, they might use this method to obtain tax credits.

Countries set minimum legal wages to shield employees from excessive remuneration. For the time spent working for one’s master or employers, the minimum legal salary is seen as adequate payment. The basis for wage discrepancy among employees of the same cadre in global corporations is the minimum wage, which is typically a reflection of the cost of living in these nations. With the rate of labor migration rising due to remote work, this might become the norm. It is anticipated that more businesses will wish to take advantage of the minimum wage requirement in other nations due to remote staffing.

The perception that employees can work whenever they choose is a side effect of remote employment. However, nations have regulations regarding working hours that must be followed. Compliance could be challenging if there is remote staffing and flexible scheduling. The employee may be given duties at odd hours and asked to complete them by a specific deadline without regard for the employer’s working time standards. 

The Nigerian labor law mandates one hour of breaks and rests for every six hours of work each day and at least twenty-four hours of uninterrupted time off every week. The Executive, Administrative, Technical, and Professional Functions are not covered by the Labor Act, which has a narrow scope of application. The particular employment contract governs these employees’ interactions with the employers the parties entered into. But employers who disregarded the rules on working hours and required overtime could face harsh consequences.

Employers need to understand that hiring and managing a small crew won’t be business as usual. Numerous legal concerns could arise due to the circumstance, necessitating a reassessment of current regulations and employment agreements to reflect the new normal. Therefore, having the appropriate legal advice is necessary while implementing a remote team.