RWANDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aimery de Schoutheete, Valence Rukesha, Chloé Stassart and Isaac Rwapasika, Liedekerke
1. Employment Terms 1.1 Employee Status
• nature of the employment; • category or level of employment; • place of work; • probation period; • working hours; • salary and fringe benefits; • deductions on salary; • date and place of payment of the salary; • overtime remuneration; • procedure of transfer of an employee; • dispute settlement procedure; • procedures for termination of the employment contract; and • date of commencement of the employment con - tract. These are the mandatory provisions. The parties to an employment contract remain free to add other clauses to govern their working relationship. 1.3 Working Hours Working Time According to the Ministerial Order No 01/MIFOTRA/23 of 13 June 2023 on working hours and public serv - ants governed by employment contracts, the weekly working time for both private and public servants is 40 hours maximum. For public servants the daily hours of work are eight hours from 8am to 1pm and from 2pm to 5pm with a flexible hour from 8am to 9am of working remotely (for example, from home). The daily time for rest for public servants governed by the Labour Code is one hour from 1pm to 2pm with flexibility to take such a break after 1pm for work related reasons. For such public servants, the time from 3pm to 5pm every Friday is reserved for sports activities. Regarding employees in the private sector, the Minis - terial Order of 13 June 2023, the weekly working hours are also 40 hours. The employee has the right to one hour of break which is determined by the employer. The time for starting the daily work is also determined by the employer but if the work starts before 9am, the employee has the right to one flexible hour from 8am to 9am to work remotely. An employee in the private sector has a right to 24 hours of rest in a week.
Rwandan labour law makes no distinction between blue-collar and white-collar workers. The Rwandan Labour Code defines an “employee” as a person hav - ing agreed to work for an employer under a contract entered into between them, and in return for remu- neration. The only distinction appearing in the Rwandan Labour Code is between “employees” and “informal sec - tor employees”, who are employees working for an enterprise or an individual for an employer that is not registered in the register of companies or with a pub - lic authority. The Rwandan Labour Code provisions relating to occupational health and safety, the right to form unions and employers’ associations, the right to salary, the minimum wage, leaves, social security protection against workplace discrimination, protec - tion from forced labour, and prohibited forms of work apply without distinction to these two categories of employees. In addition, specific regulations (eg, the Ministerial Order of 17 March 2020 relating to employees’ repre - sentatives) refer to managerial staff, without this cat - egory of worker being formally defined by law. In this context, the definition of a managerial employee may be the one used in other jurisdictions, ie, an employ - ee who generally performs a management or control function in a company and usually enjoys a special In Rwanda, employment contracts are required. They can be entered into for a fixed term or for an indef - inite duration and can be written or oral. However, the duration of an oral employment contract cannot exceed 90 consecutive days. The following terms must appear in written employ - ment contracts: • identification of the employee and the employer; • purpose of the contract; • obligations of contracting parties; • duration of the contract; status in collective agreements. 1.2 Employment Contracts
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