Employment Act
(CHAPTER 91)
(Original Enactment: Act 17 of 1968)
REVISED EDITION 2009
(31st July 2009)
An Act relating to employment.
[15th August 1968]
PART I
PRELIMINARY
Short title
1. This Act may be cited as the Employment Act.
Interpretation
2.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires —
“approved medical institution” means a hospital, clinic, healthcare establishment or other medical institution which the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, declares as an approved medical institution*;
* See section 48(1) of the Employment (Amendment) Act 2008 (Act 32 of 2008).
“basic rate of pay” means the total amount of money (including wage adjustments and increments) to which an employee is entitled under his contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include —
(a)additional payments by way of overtime payments;
(b)additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual wage supplements;
(c)any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;
(d)productivity incentive payments; and
(e)any allowance however described;
“collective agreement” means an agreement as defined under the Industrial Relations Act (Cap. 136);
“confinement” means the delivery of a child;
“constructional contractor” means any person, firm, corporation or company who or which is established for the purpose of undertaking, either exclusively or in addition to or in conjunction with any other business, any type of constructional work, and who or which is carrying out the constructional work for or on behalf of some other person under a contract entered into by him or them with such other person, and includes his or their heirs, executors, administrators, assigns and successors;
“constructional work” means any building and civil engineering work and includes repair, maintenance, alteration and demolition work;
“contract of service” means any agreement, whether in writing or oral, express or implied, whereby one person agrees to employ another as an employee and that other agrees to serve his employer as an employee and includes an apprenticeship contract or agreement;
“contractor” means any person who contracts with a principal to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal in the course of or for the purposes of the principal’s trade or business;
“day” means a period of 24 hours beginning at midnight;
“dependant” means any of the following members of an employee’s family, namely, wife, husband, father, mother, child and any adopted or illegitimate child living with or dependent on him;
“dismiss” means the termination of the contract of service of an employee by his employer, with or without notice and whether on the grounds of misconduct or otherwise;
“domestic worker” means any house, stable or garden servant or motor car driver, employed in or in connection with the domestic services of any private premises;
“employee” means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of service with an employer and includes a workman, and any officer or employee of the Government included in a category, class or description of such officers or employees declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act or any provision thereof, but does not include —
(a)any seaman;
(b)any domestic worker;
(c)subject to subsection (2), any person employed in a managerial or an executive position; and
(d)any person belonging to any other class of persons whom the Minister may, from time to time by notification in the Gazette, declare not to be employees for the purposes of this Act;
“employer” means any person who employs another person under a contract of service and includes —
(a)the Government in respect of such categories, classes or descriptions of officers or employees of the Government as from time to time are declared by the President to be employees for the purposes of this Act;
(b)any statutory authority;
(c)the duly authorised agent or manager of the employer; and
(d)the person who owns or is carrying on or for the time being responsible for the management of the profession, business, trade or work in which the employee is engaged;
“gross rate of pay” means the total amount of money including allowances to which an employee is entitled under his contract of service either for working for a period of time, that is, for one hour, one day, one week, one month or for such other period as may be stated or implied in his contract of service, or for each completed piece or task of work but does not include —
(a)additional payments by way of overtime payments;
(b)additional payments by way of bonus payments or annual wage supplements;
(c)any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;
(d)productivity incentive payments; and
(e)travelling, food or housing allowances;
“hours of work” means the time during which an employee is at the disposal of the employer and is not free to dispose of his own time and movements exclusive of any intervals allowed for rest and meals;
“industrial undertaking” means public and private undertakings and any branch thereof and includes particularly —
(a)mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals from the earth;
(b)undertakings in which articles are manufactured, assembled, altered, cleaned, repaired, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including undertakings engaged in shipbuilding, or in the generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind;
(c)undertakings engaged in constructional work; and
(d)undertakings engaged in the transport of passengers or goods by road, rail, sea, inland waterway or air, including the handling of goods at docks, quays, wharves, warehouses or airports;
“inspecting officer” means any person appointed as an inspecting officer under section 3(2);
“machinery” includes all oil engines, gas engines, steam engines and any other machines in which mechanical movement, either linear or rotated or both, takes place, steam boilers, gas cylinders, air receivers, steam receivers, steam containers, cast iron underfired vulcanizers, refrigerating plants, pressure receivers, all appliances for the transmission of power by ropes, belts, chains, driving straps or bands or gearing, electrical generators and electrical motors;
“medical officer” means —
(a)a dentist registered under the Dental Registration Act (Cap. 76), or a medical practitioner, employed by the Government or by an approved medical institution; or
(b)any other medical practitioner whom the Minister, by notification in the Gazette, declares as a medical officer;
“medical practitioner” means a medical practitioner registered under the Medical Registration Act (Cap. 174);
“overtime” means the number of hours worked in any one day or in any one week in excess of the limits specified in Part IV;
“place of employment” means any place provided by the employer where work is carried on, for or on behalf of an employer, by an employee;
“principal” means any person who, in the course of or for the purposes of his trade or business, contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for the execution by the contractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the principal;
“productivity incentive payment” means a variable payment, whether made annually or otherwise, to an employee as a reward for —
(a)an improvement to the employee’s performance; or
(b)an increase in the employee’s productivity or contribution to the employer’s business, trade or undertaking,
but does not include any payment which forms part of the employee’s regular remuneration;
“quarters” means any building provided or intended to be provided for a workman to live in either temporarily or permanently and includes any room or building used or intended to be used whether communally or privately for the purposes of cooking, eating, washing or bathing and any latrines and urinals;
“salary” means all remuneration including allowances payable to an employee in respect of work done under his contract of service, but does not include —
(a)the value of any house accommodation, supply of electricity, water, medical attendance, or other amenity, or of any service excluded by general or special order of the Minister published in the Gazette;
(b)any contribution paid by the employer on his own account to any pension fund or provident fund;
(c)any travelling allowance or the value of any travelling concession;
(d)any sum paid to the employee to reimburse him for special expenses incurred by him in the course of his employment;
(e)any gratuity payable on discharge or retirement; and
(f)any retrenchment benefit payable on retrenchment;
“subcontractor” means any person who contracts with a contractor for the supply of labour or for the execution by the subcontractor of the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the contractor for his principal, and includes any person who contracts with a subcontractor to supply labour or to carry out the whole or any part of any work undertaken by the subcontractor for a contractor;
“subcontractor for labour” means any person who contracts with a contractor or subcontractor to supply the labour required for the execution of the whole or any part of any work a contractor or subcontractor has contracted to carry out for a principal or contractor, as the case may be;
“wages” means salary;
“week” means a continuous period of 7 days;
“workman” means —
(a)any person, skilled or unskilled, who has entered into a contract of service with an employer in pursuance of which he is engaged in manual labour, including any artisan or apprentice, but excluding any seaman or domestic worker;
(b)any person, other than clerical staff, employed in the operation or maintenance of mechanically propelled vehicles used for the transport of passengers for hire or for commercial purposes;
(c)any person employed partly for manual labour and partly for the purpose of supervising in person any workman in and throughout the performance of his work:
Provided that when any person is employed by any one employer partly as a workman and partly in some other capacity or capacities, that person shall be deemed to be a workman unless it can be established that the time during which that workman has been required to work as a workman in any one salary period as defined in Part III has on no occasion amounted to or exceeded one-half of the total time during which that person has been required to work in such salary period;
(d)any person specified in the First Schedule;
(e)any person whom the Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare to be a workman for the purposes of this Act.
[21/84; 36/95; 41/2004; 32/2008]
(2) Any person employed in a managerial or an executive position who is in receipt of a salary not exceeding $4,500 a month (excluding overtime payments, bonus payments, annual wage supplements, productivity incentive payments and any allowance however described), or such other amount as may be prescribed by the Minister, shall be regarded as an employee for the purposes of —
(a)sections 20, 20A, 21, 22, 23 (read with section 10 or 11, as the case may be), 24, 25 and 34 and Parts XII to XVI (read with the Second and Third Schedules); and
(b)such other provisions of this Act as the Minister may, by regulations, specify,
and those provisions shall apply in relation to that person subject to such modification as may be prescribed.
[36/2010 wef 01/02/2011]
Appointment of officers
3.—(1) The Minister may appoint an officer to be styled the Commissioner for Labour (referred to in this Act as the Commissioner) and also one or more officers to be styled Deputy Commissioner for Labour, Principal Assistant Commissioner for Labour or Assistant Commissioner for Labour, who, subject to such limitations as may be prescribed, may perform all duties imposed and exercise all powers conferred on the Commissioner by this Act, and every duty so performed and power so exercised shall be deemed to have been duly performed and exercised for the purposes of this Act.(2) The Minister may appoint such number of inspecting officers and other officers as he may consider necessary or expedient for the purposes of this Act.
[21/84]
Rules and orders
4. The Minister may from time to time make rules and orders for the conduct of the duties of officers under this Act.
Minister may restrict application
5. The Minister may, by notification in the Gazette, declare that this Act or any Part or provisions thereof shall not apply to any premises or class of premises specified in the notification.
Existing law not affected
6. Nothing in this Act shall operate to relieve any employer of any duty or liability imposed upon him by the provisions of any other written law for the time being in force or to limit any powers given to any public officer by any other written law.
Invalidity of contract of service
7. [Repealed by Act 32 of 2008]
- The e-Calculator enables you to calculate salary payment, overtime payment, salary in lieu of notice etc in accordance
- with the formulas stipulated in the Employment Act.
- For example:
- - Basic rate of pay is used when we calculate pay for
- (a) work on a rest day
- (b) work on a public holiday;
- - Gross rate of pay is used when we calculate :
- (a) salary in lieu of notice of termination of service,
- (b) salary deduction for unauthorised absence from work, and
- (c) paid public holidays; and
- (d) approved paid leave including annual leave, hospitalisation leave and maternity leave.
- -Salary for incomplete month’s work is used when a monthly-rated employee has not completed a whole month of service.
Some of the commonly used formulas may be found at our website on Calculation of Salary
Available eCalculator
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