Senate Rescinds Earlier Decisions, Re-passes Workers’ Compensation And Polytechnic Reform Bills

The Senate has revisited two previously passed bills, rescinding its earlier decisions and re-passing them after further legislative scrutiny to address legal ambiguities and strengthen their provisions.

The bills are the Nigerian Employees’ Compensation Trust Fund Agency Establishment Bill, 2026, and the Federal Polytechnics Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026. The Senate had initially passed the compensation bill on June 2 and the polytechnics amendment on July 7, 2026.

Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, who moved the motion for rescission and recommittal, said certain provisions required closer examination to ensure administrative clarity and a comprehensive legal framework .

“The Senate notes that certain provisions in Sections 2, 8 and 31 of the Polytechnic Act, as well as several provisions of the Employees’ Compensation Trust Fund Establishment Bill, 2026, require further legislative scrutiny, review and amendment to ensure administrative clarity and a comprehensive legal framework,” Bamidele said.

Seconding the motion, Senator Kamarudeen Olalere Oyewumi, representing Osun West, said the exercise would remove ambiguities and align the bills with existing laws establishing similar institutions.

Following the adoption of the motion, the Senate resolved into the Committee of the Whole to reconsider the bills clause by clause. Lawmakers considered and approved all 96 clauses of the Nigerian Employees’ Compensation Trust Fund Agency Bill, alongside its interpretation clause, schedules, explanatory memorandum and long title.

Bamidele explained that the compensation bill seeks to repeal the Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund Act and the Employees’ Compensation Act, 2010, and replace them with a new framework.

The proposed legislation provides compensation for death, injury, disease or disability arising out of, or in the course of, employment.

The Federal Polytechnics Act (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend the existing law governing federal polytechnics, including provisions relating to their functions and other institutional matters.

Both bills were subsequently read for the third time and passed. They will be transmitted to the House of Representatives for concurrence before being sent to the President for assent.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio commended Bamidele for initiating the reconsideration and thanked senators for their contributions.

“Let me thank the Leader of the Senate for bringing these two very important bills for rescission and recommittal of some clauses, not the whole, and I also thank distinguished senators for their contributions, so that we can ensure that the bills are fit for purpose,” Akpabio said.

Akpabio said the legislation would help protect workers through compensation provisions while ensuring that technical institutions served the country’s economic development needs.