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NIGERIA UNION OF RAILWAYMEN AND NIGERIAN RAILWAY CORPORATION (NATIONAL INDUSTRIAL COURT) H ON. JUSTICE (CHIEF) P.A. ATILADE PRESIDENT DR O.I. ODUMOSU MEMBER S.O. KOKU,ESQ. MEMBER DR. E. C. IWUJI MEMBER ALHAJI Z.M. BELLO MEMBER SUIT NO: NIC/4/83 DATE OF JUDGMENT FRIDAY, 28TH DECEMBER, 1984 LABOURLAW Bonus - Payment of end-of-year bonus in a Federal Government service - What guides. ISSUE: WHETHER THE FIRST Party's claim for the payment of end-of-year bonus for 1981 is justified. FACTS: The non-payment of 1981 end-of-year bonus to the First Party was the issue in dispute between the parties before the Industrial Arbitration Panel (IAP). The IAP, in its consent e red that the parties should abide by the result of the Presidential Committee set up the issue of fringe benefits in the public sector, and which would consider the question of end-of-year bonus. The first Party objected to the IAP Award, contending that it never consented to such an award. The matter was consequently referred to the National Industrial Court by the Minister Labour. The First Party contended in the main that the Second Party is a social service, which should not be seen purely from the point of view of commercial consideration; and that there was a marked improvement in the services provided by the Second Party in 1981. On the part of the Second Party, it was contended that both parties agreed to abide by the outcome of the Committee on the issue; that the outcome of the deliberations of the committee was that where end-of-year bonus is not one of the conditions of service, it payment by companies or parastatals which show real profits for the preceding that end-of-year bonus is not prescribed in its conditions of service. HELD: (Rejecting the claim of the First Party): On What guides payment of end-of-year bonus in a Federal Government corporation- The payment of end-of-year bonus in a Federal Government Corporation can only guided by a policy enunciated by the Federal Government in that regard. In this case, clear from the relevant document that where end-of-year bonus is not one of the conditions of service, this is an ex-gratia payment payable by those companies or parastatals which show real profit for the preceding year. HON. JUSTICE (CHIEF) P.A. ATILADE PRESIDENT, DR O.I. ODUMOSU MEMBER, S.O. KOKU,ESQ. MEMBER, DR. E.C. IWUJI MEMBER, Z.M. BELLO MEMBER