No.

Provision

Detail

1.

Sexual harassment

Cap 226 requires employers with more than 25 staff to have a sexual harassment policy.

The Amendment Act makes it mandatory for all employers, regardless of the number of employees in their service, to have in place measures to combat sexual harassment at the workplace.

2.

Harassment and intimidation of employees

The Amendment Act introduces a new Section 6A to criminalize acts of harassment, violation, and intimidation of employees by an employer or the employer’s agents.

Harassment and violence have been defined to mean any written, verbal, or physical abuse or behaviour that interferes with work or creates an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment. Intimidation on the other hand includes physical or verbal abuse or behaviour directed at isolating or humiliating an individual or a group of individuals or at preventing an individual or a group of individuals from engaging in work activities.

A person shall be deemed to have intimidated an employee where they subject the employee to degrading public tirades, insult his/her personal or professional competence, make oral or written threats or insulting comments, withhold food or other basic necessities that an employee is contractually entitled to, insulting the employee’s modesty and engaging in degrading public tirades by a supervisor or colleague.

3.

The Amendment Act limits the length of casual labour relationships to a continuous period of six (6) months. Upon lapse of the six (6) months, an employer will be deemed to have entered a contract of service with the casual worker.

Secondly, casual employment shall be deemed to be continuous if a casual worker is laid off and rehired.

4.  

Piecework

The Amendment also introduces the concept of employees entering into piecework contracts. This means that an employee performs a specific amount of work and receives payment from the employer upon completion of the work.

5.

The Amendment Act regulates the activities of recruitment agencies in Uganda and labour externalization generally.

Labour externalization has in recent years exponentially expanded, accounting for the existence of over 400 recruitment companies in the country, and exportation of a large population of migrant workers to mainly countries in the Middle East. As a result, the industry has faced various challenges ranging from illicit or concealed movement of persons, continuous struggles and hardships for the migrant workers and difficulties in repatriation causing an outcry in the public. 

Previously, there was no policy on labour migration, and the sector was largely regulated by the Employment (Recruitment of Ugandan migrant workers) Regulations, 2021 and a Bilateral Labour Agreement with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The Amendment Act introduces Part IVA to regulate the industry majorly providing for the prohibition of illicit or concealed movement of persons for employment abroad, licensing of recruitment agencies, the requirement that such agency ought to be a company duly incorporated under the Companies Act, the list of institutions that are ineligible to be licensed, issuance of job orders prior to recruitment of Ugandans abroad, requirement for repatriation provisions in employee’s contracts and the obligations of recruitment agencies, appeals to the High Court and offences under this part of the Amendment.

6.

Sick pay

An employee who becomes incapable of work on account of sickness or injury will now be entitled to full wages for the first two (2) months.

If, at the expiry of the second month the employee’s sickness continues, the employer will be entitled to pay the employee half-pay of his/her monthly wages for the subsequent four (4) months.

 The employer’s right to terminate an employee’s contract on grounds of medical incapacity shall only arise if the employee’s sickness continues after the expiration of six (6) months. An employer will additionally be required to seek a medical practitioner’s opinion about the employee’s medical condition before effecting such termination.

7.

Breastfeeding and childcare facilities

In light of the employers’ constitutional mandate (under Article 40(4) of the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda) to accord female workers protection during pregnancy and after birth, and the recognitions under Article 33 of the Constitution, of their unique and maternal responsibilities, the legislature has considered it necessary to introduce a new provision in the Act aimed at protecting the rights of breastfeeding working mothers.

Employers are now required to make available at the place of work; space or facility, and to set a time for breastfeeding and childcare for their employees’ children, ranging between ages three (3) months to thirty-six (36) months.

8.

Grounds for termination

Redundancy, medical incapacity after six months and where the continuous employment of the employee may lead to breach of a statutory obligation have now been explicitly listed as grounds for termination of an employment contract.

9.

Grounds for dismissal

The Amendment Act introduces a new provision, Section 65A, which sets out specific grounds that may result into a dismissal from employment.

The grounds include: an employee’s abscondment from duty for a consecutive period of more than thirty (30) days, employee’s presentation of forged documents or lack of required qualifications at the time of recruitment, where an employee’s conducts inside or outside employment may have an adverse effect on the employer’s business, and any other ground specified in the employment contract.

 The implication of this amendment is that any other grounds that could result into a dismissal which is not listed under this section ought to be expressly stipulated under the employee’s contract of employment.

A dismissal that results from a ground/reason which is not stipulated under Section 65A or under the employee’s contract of employment will be regarded as an unfair dismissal going forward.

10.

Procedure for dismissal

The procedure applicable to dismissals has largely been maintained. The only addition introduced by the Amendment Act is that employers will be required to give employees a minimum of five (5) working days to prepare for a disciplinary meeting/hearing.

11.

Unfair and wrongful dismissal

The Amendment Act distinguishes the terms “unfair dismissal” and “wrongful dismissal”, which have over the years been used interchangeably.

 A dismissal shall be deemed unfair if an employer dismisses an employee for any reason other than those specified in Section 65A. On the other hand, a dismissal will be considered wrongful where the employer has not fulfilled his/her statutory or contractual obligations under the contract of service while dismissing the employee. The Amendment Act further points out what the labour officer shall consider while determining whether an employer fulfilled his/her obligations under the contract of employment.

12.

Termination of a probationary contract

The sum payable in lieu of notice upon termination of a probationary contract has been increased from seven (7) days’ wages to one (1) month’s wage.

Secondly, where an employer fails to extend a probationary contract and continues to pay the employee after lapse of the probationary period, the employee will be deemed to have been confirmed in employment.

13.

Reasons for dismissal

The Amendment Act clarifies that an employer is obliged to give the employee a reason(s) before a dismissal. Where a dismissal is effected, absent of reasons, it will be deemed wrongful.

14.

Complaints to labour officers

The Act has been amended to clarify the extent of the powers of a labour officer when handling labour disputes. The Amendment Act has restricted the powers of a labour officer to conciliation, mediation and adjudication.

This means that going forward, a labour officer cannot apply arbitration in the resolution of labour disputes. The labour officers’ powers to make orders has also been maintained.

15.

Compensatory order

The basic compensatory order awarded to employees by a labour officer or a Court upon a finding of unfair dismissal has been revised from four (4) weeks’ wages to eight (8) weeks’ wages.

Secondly, orders made by a labour officer shall going forward be executed in the Industrial Court.

16.

Collective terminations

An employer will now be required to issue the notification of any intended collective terminations of not less than ten employees to the Commissioner for Labour thirty (30) days before carrying out the terminations.

17.

Severance allowances

Employers will be required to pay a severance allowance in instances where an employee’s contract has been terminated by the employer on account of physical incapacity and where an employee has been declared redundant.

Severance shall no longer be payable where a contract of employment is terminated on account of the death or insolvency of the employer.

The formula to be applied when computing the amount of severance allowance payable to an employee under the Act shall be one (1) month’s salary for each year worked by the employee.

18.

Migrant workers

The Minister is empowered to gazette a range of jobs that shall not be offered to migrant workers save where the worker possesses an exemption certificate issued by the Commissioner.

This limitation does not apply to certain categories of persons including;

1. a member of the Mission and his or her private servant under the Diplomatic Privileges Act;
2. a non-citizen employed by a prescribed organisation;
3. a non-citizen who is working or supplying services under the EAC Common Market Protocol or any agreement to which Uganda is a party;
4. an employee of a security agency of a foreign State carrying out duties in Uganda in collaboration with any of the security agencies in Uganda; and any other person exempted by the Minister under the Act.

19.

Penalties under the Amedment Act

The Amendment Act amends Section 96 of the Act which sets out applicable penalties for contravention of the provisions of the Employment Act. The Amendment revises the penalties upwards to deter abuse of the Act.

For example, contravention of any provision of the Act for which no express penalty is provided will attract a fine of up to UGX 10,000,000 (Ten Million Uganda Shillings) upon conviction at first instance. Any subsequent conviction for the same offence will attract a fine of up to UGX 14,000,000 (Fourteen Million Uganda Shillings) or to imprisonment for a term of up to seven (7) years or both.

With respect to provisions that specifically provide for an act or omission as an offence, the labour officer is empowered to caution the employer in writing and upon repeat of the same infringement, the employer will be liable to a fine of up to UGX 10,000,000 (Ten Million Uganda Shillings) or imprisonment of a term of up to five (5) years, or both.