Understanding the Employment Act in Uganda
The Employment act 2006 was assented to by the president of Uganda His excellency Yoweri Kaguta Museveni on the 24th May 2006.
This Act provides fundamental rights and protection to workers, including the right to fair wages, safe working conditions, and freedom from discrimination and forced labor. It also establishes the rights of workers to form and join trade unions, to collectively bargain and to strike.
It outlines the responsibilities of employers, including the obligation to provide safe and healthy working conditions, to pay fair wages and to respect the rights of employees to form and trade unions
According to the Uganda Bureau of statistics, the survey that was conducted by the national labor force in 2016/17 (NLFS) the number of people that are employed in Uganda is 15,290,000
There are different employment categories in the constitution of Uganda and these are:
- Formal Employment: This category of employment in the formal sector, characterized by a written contract and protection under labor laws.
- Informal employment: Employment outside the formal sector such as self employment and casual work.
- Public service employment: This is defined as being employed in the government and state-owned entities, governed by the public service Act.
- Foreign employment: Employment of non -citizens within the country, governed by immigration and labour laws.
- Casual employment: Is one who works on a daily basis or hourly basis where payment of wages is due at the completion of each day’s work
- Business employment: Includes any trade, professional undertaking, operation or establishment whether public, cooperative, and private.
The employment Act 2006 has different key provisions and these include:
Minimum wage: The Act requires employers to pay their employees at least the national minimum wage as set by the government and the national minimum wage is reviewed annually and is currently UGX 130,000 per month. The minimum wage must cover the living expenses of the employee and his/her family members. Moreover, it must relate reasonably to the general level of wages earned and the living standard of other social groups. Wages must be paid regularly on a daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
Working Hours: The Act sets the maximum weekly working hours for adult employees at 48 hours, with an opt out available if an employee agrees to work longer hours. Workers are entitled to 24 consecutive hours of rest per week. The weekly rest may be taken on customary rest day (Sunday) or as agreed between the two parties. Workers holding managerial positions and those working in family establishments employing not more than five dependent relatives may be excluded from weekly rest day by regulations issued by the Minister.
Rest break is granted for 30 minutes to the employees working for at least 8 hours per day.
Source 51 & 53(6) of the Employment Act 2006
3.Annual leave entitlement: The Employment Act provides annual leave for all workers on completion of at least six months of service. A worker, working weekly for sixteen or more hours, is entitled to 21 working days paid annual leave at the rate of 7 days for each period of continuous 4 months of service on completion of 12 months of continuous service. The time to take annual leave has to be agreed between the parties. A worker is entitled to paid holidays proportionate to the length of service for which he/she has not received such a holiday or compensation for any of the unused annual leave in the event of employment termination.
Source: 54 of the Employment Act 2006
4.Right to request flexible working hours: The Act gives employees with 26 weeks continuous service the right to make a request for flexible working hours, including changes to hours ,location ,or job sharing .Employers are required to consider such requests and provide a written response within three months .
5.Compensation: Normal working hours are 8 per day and 48 per week. Workers may be required to work overtime, provided that total working hours, inclusive of overtime, must not exceed 10 hours per day or fifty-six hours per week except when persons are employed in shifts. It is permissible to employ shift workers in excess of ten hours in any one day or 48 hours in any one week (without paying overtime), where the average number of hours over a period of three weeks may not exceed 10 hours per day and 56 hours per week. An employer is required to pay overtime at the rate of one and a half times the normal rate of pay (150% of normal wage rate). This rate is for working overtime on normal weekdays. If workers are required to do overtime work on a gazetted public holiday, they are paid two times the rate of normal pay .
Source: 53 of the Employment Act 2006
The current law which governs individual employment relations in the employment Act 2006.This Act was enacted to revise and consolidate the laws governing individual employment relationships, and to provide for other connected matters.
The Parliament of Uganda has recently tabled a private member’s bill the Employment (Amendment bill) 2022 mainly seeking to address some defects in the current Employment law addressing casual labourer/employees, domestic workers, migrant workers, breast feeding mothers, sexual harassment in employment and severance allowance among others.
Sexual Harassment. The current law defines what constitutes sexual harassment, the procedure for a complaint in cases of sexual harassment at work and limits the requirement for sexual harassment procedures to employers with more than 25 employees, the bill further proposes prohibition of mistreatment, harassment and violence at the workplace., the bill emphasizes all employers to put in place measures to prevent sexual harassment and it is an offence for any person who does not comply with provision.
Breastfeeding Mothers
The tabled employment Act provides maternity leave to female employees specifically breastfeeding mothers by providing for 30 minutes breastfeeding breaks daily in every 2 hours or reduction in the contractual hours for an additional sixty days to allow her to breastfeed her child.
Severance Allowance.
The Employment Act 2006 left a gap in the calculation of severance allowance leaving it to be arrived at during the negotiations between the employer and employee and the current bill provides the formula for calculating the allowance.
Employees protection:
The bill proposes an expansion of the definitions of contract of service and employee to cater for casual and domestic work while prohibiting employers from retaining or withholding original personal or professional documents of an employee. The bill protects special categories of employees including persons with disabilities, domestic workers and casual laborers by granting the minister authority to prescribe a complaint handling mechanism to govern the employment of this category of workers who need special protection.
Children employment: The employment Act 2006 allows the employment of children aged 14 to be doing light work under the supervision of an adult while the tabled bill increases the age limit to 16 years to protect children from exploitation and child labor.
In conclusion: The employment Act 2006 and the tabled employment bill seek to prevent the exploitation and abuse of various categories of employees. These Employment laws are up to date with international labor laws and on its standards and it addresses most aspects such as the regulations of domestic and casual workers while allowing employers and employees options to be regulated by the employment Act.
