MALDIVES Law and Practice Contributed by: Hassan Maaz Shareef, Aminath Amathulla, Aishath Shifala, Mohamed Azmee, Nazahath Ahmed, Maaisha Mohamed Musthafa, Aifa Shareef and Noorul Hudha Ahmed, Premier Chambers LLP
4.4 Termination of Employment Contracts Termination of Employment Contracts After the Employment Act came into force in 2008, the Maldives abolished employment at will. Currently, for an employment contract to be terminated, there must be a reasonable cause. Three types of dismissals are currently recognised in the Maldives. • Dismissal with notice: This is allowed after show - ing appropriate cause for failure to maintain a work ethic or inability to perform employment duties and responsibilities related to the proper functioning of their place of work, even after implementation of measures to discipline the employee or address skill deficiencies. • Summary dismissal: This is where an employee is dismissed without notice when their work ethic is deemed unacceptable and continuing employment is likely to be detrimental to the employer or the workplace. • Redundancy: This is considered a reasonable cause for dismissal in the following circumstances: (a) closure of the business and services of the employer; (b) redundancy due to restructuring of the busi - ness; and (c) financial distress. The onus is always on the employer to show cause for dismissal. Severance Pay and Notice of Termination Severance pay need not be paid to employees upon dismissal. In the event of dismissal with notice, the employer must give notice to the employees based on the employee’s length of service and the employer can terminate the employment immediately by paying the employee’s salary in lieu of any required period of notice, together with any accrued holiday pay up to the date notice is given. In the case of redundancy, no mandatory compen - sation or redundancy pay is required to be paid to employees who are made redundant. However, the Employment Act obliges the employer to give notice of dismissal to the employees being made redun - dant based on the employee’s length of service. The
ties which are usually and normally carried out at the place of work on a permanent basis. 4.3 Working Time Working Hours An employee’s normal working hours must not exceed 48 hours a week. The normal working hours do not include any overtime that an employee works. The Employment Act specifies particular categories of employees exempt from the normal working hour limitations. Employees in sectors specified in the Employment Act may be required to work two additional hours per day beyond the normal working hours limit (as outlined in the employment agreement), provided they are com - pensated for the additional hours as overtime. There is no limitation on the maximum number of hours an employee may work in a day. However, the minister designated to oversee the implementation of the Employment Act has the discretion to formulate a regulation imposing a maximum number of hours per day. As of now, no such regulation has been for - mulated. The general rule is that employers are prohibited from requiring an employee to work for more than six con - secutive days without granting a break of 24 hours. However, there are exceptions to this rule: employees working in specific sectors may be required to work more than six consecutive days without a break, pro - vided they are granted rest days in lieu of each day worked beyond the six consecutive days, which can be accumulated and utilised thereafter. Overtime Employers are prohibited from requiring employees to work overtime unless it is specified in the employment contract. Any work carried out as overtime must be paid at the following hourly rates. • Overtime on a normal working day: 1.25 times an employee’s regular hourly wage. • Overtime on a Friday or a public holiday: 1.5 times an employee’s regular hourly wage.
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