RWANDA Law and Practice Contributed by: Aimery de Schoutheete, Valence Rukesha, Chloé Stassart and Isaac Rwapasika, Liedekerke
9. Dispute Resolution 9.1 Litigation
missal, it will be deemed unfair, entitling the employ - ees to damages amounting to up to nine months of net salary, depending on their years of service or their capacity. Employers must be careful when dismissing an employee and make sure that they have a valid ground for dismissal. 8.2 Anti-Discrimination The Rwandan Labour Code states that an employer must give employees equal opportunities at the work - place. An employer is prohibited from discriminating against employees on the basis of ethnic origin, fam - ily or ancestry, clan, skin colour or race, sex, region, economic categories, religion or faith, opinion, for - tune, cultural difference, language, physical or mental disability, or any other form of discrimination. Every employer must pay employees equal salary for work of equal value without discrimination of any kind. The constitutional principle of non-discrimination is also applied in certain specific employment laws, such as the law on trade union delegates, specifying that candidates to social elections within the company must be treated equally. Nothing is mentioned in the Rwandan Labour Code regarding the burden of proof. It may reasonably be assumed that it is the employee invoking discrimina - tion who must prove that they are effectively a victim of discrimination. Employees could claim compensa - tion before courts. 8.3 Digitalisation There is no regulation regarding the digitalisation of employment disputes in Rwanda.
There are no specialised employment forums, and class actions are not available as such. Parties can always be assisted by a lawyer for legal proceedings, either before the Labour Inspectorate or the labour courts. 9.2 Alternative Dispute Resolution The Labour Code sets out the procedure for resolving labour disputes and requires that an individual labour dispute between an employer and an employee must first be attempted by employees’ representatives who will try to resolve the dispute amicably. Failing this, the dispute must be referred to the labour inspectorate of the area where the enterprise is located. If the labour inspector fails to resolve the matter, he/she must refer the matter to the labour inspector at the national level. Should both labour inspectors fail to resolve the dis - pute, such dispute must be referred to the competent court. These steps are mandatory and the competent court may refuse to receive the case if the above steps have not been followed. Although not entirely clear, Rwandan arbitration law is supposed to apply only to commercial matters. In any case, and although noth - ing expressly prevents the parties from including an arbitration clause in their employment contract, this is not frequent at all in practice, and not recommended given the often extremely high costs of arbitration compared to the average worker’s salary. 9.3 Costs A prevailing employee can claim for, and therefore can be awarded, representation fees. The labour court will analyse this incidental claim at the same time as the principal claim.
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