By Divine Nwakanma
Nigeria has been ranked as the third worst country in the world for layy-offs, according to the current financial climate, new research.
The research, carried out by Lensa, reveals how fairly the workers are treated in different countries in times of restructuring. Looking at notice periods for redundancy and unemployment rates, as well as redundancy pay and rules over the world, to find out where in the world is the worst place to be laid off.
Puerto Rico takes the crown as the worst location to be laid off in. In Puerto Rico, the law doesn’t guarantee any severance pay (even for those who have worked in a company for 10 years), and employees be dismissed without a notice period.
The United States ranks as the second worst place to be laid off in. Out of nine possible redundancy laws, the US enforces just two of them. One also gets no legally guaranteed severance pay or notice period.
In third place ranks Nigeria. The country enforces 4/9 redundancy rules, however, still does not guarantee you any severance package. Employees do get a notice period: 1 week for employees with 1 year of tenure and 4.3 for employees with over 5.
New Zealand comes in fourth place for the worst country to be laid off in. New Zealanders see no legally guaranteed severance pay or notice periods, and only 3 of 9 redundancy rules are enforced. Unemployment is relatively low, however, at 3.3%.
Completing this list of the top 5 worst places to lose your job is Djibouti, where workers are guaranteed a 4.3-week notice period if they have worked anywhere over a year, however, they are not guaranteed severance pay.
However, in the world’s best places for layoffs:, Sierra Leone ranked the most up to par country for dealing with employee redundancies: one is guaranteed at least a 13-week notice period and employees with a 10-year tenure can secure a massive 132-week severance pay package.
In Egypt, workers are guaranteed severance pay ranges from 4.3 weeks (with one year of tenure) to 54.2 weeks (with over 10 years of tenure). Egypt also enforces a good 7/9 of the possible redundancy rules.
In third place is Moldova, where all employees with 1 year tenure are given 8.7 weeks of notice and 12.9 – 18.6 weeks of severance pay. Moldova also sees a low unemployment rate of just 3%, meaning it should be easier to find new work compared to other countries.