Definition of labor law Labour law is a contract of employment and it shall be formed where a person the employee agrees directly or indirectly to perform work for and under the authority of another the employer for a definite ID: 701313
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Slide1
Chapter I: Definitions and concepts of labor law
Definition of labor law
Labour
law is a
contract of employment and it shall
be
formed where a person (the employee)
agrees, directly or indirectly,
to perform
work for and under the authority of another (the employer) for a definite
or indefinite
period or piece work in return for
wages(salary /remuneration). Slide2
Elements of employment contract
Some elements to examine with regard the above mentioned definition
:-
1. Agreement
employment contract is based on
consent
and
voluntary enga
gement which
automatically excludes forced
labour
from
the ambit
of employment relations.
That
means
a person cannot be compelled to enter into
an employment relations. Slide3
Types of employment relations
A)
Direct expression
: An employment
may
be expressed
directly
whereby
a
person may directly or
personally negotiate
with his/her employer and conclude a contract of employment thereafter.Slide4
B
)Indirect expression
: the agreement may be
indirect
where by there is an as intermediaries(employment agencies) between the employer and the employee with a view to facilitating their relations. Slide5
2. Performance
of work
The
employee is to
perform work
for of the employer‖. The employee will be required to render
personal service
. In this sense, the employee is committing him/her/self to
rende
r personal
service for
the benefit of the employer. Slide6
the differences between contract of sale of goods and contract of employment
Contract of sale of goods is where the seller delivers something
tangible
to the buyer, whereas the employee is making his
service
available (i.e. something intangible) to the benefit of the employer. On the other had
, the
employee
can not delegate
his /her work to another
person
to render
service in his/her behalf.Slide7
3. Under
the authority of the employer
The employee will be required to render the
agreed service
within the frame work of
the
instruction
of the employer
.
The
employer will
direct, supervise and control
the manner and performance of the employee.
The
employer will have the power to
determin
e what work
to be
done
;
when
to be done
; where
to be done
;
how to be done
and with whom
to be done
.Slide8
However, that the authority granted to the employer over the employee is not meant and intended to establish a
master and servant
relationship.
On the contrary, it is within the framework of the
terms of the contract
and the scope of the authority of the employer over the employee will be limited by lawSlide9
the authority of the employer is different from an independent contractor
An
independent contractor performs work for the benefit
of his/her
client but in performing such work s/he is not under the strict direction of
the client
. The client in such cases is interested on the result and not on the manner how
the result
was achieved. For example, if a client seeks the service of a tailor to make him
a three
pieces suit, he will not have an interest
wher
e and
how
it is made so long as
the agreed
date and quality of the product is maintained. Slide10
But in case of an employer, he is
not
only interested on the result but also on the
manner of arriving
at such result.Slide11
4. Length of employment
As regards to duration, a contract of employment could be entered into either for definite period (for six months, for one year etc), or for indefinite period (i.e. for the life of the company), or for a specific assignment (to unload sacks of grain from a truck). For example such contracts like
marriage
, in principle, is a life long engagement. This is not the case
forcontract
of employment.Slide12
5. Wage
Contract of employment is not a
pro bono
service but, it is a service in return for wages. The employer will be expected and required to pay wage to the employee as s the employee is committing himself/herself to render personal service for the benefit and under the authority of the employer for the purpose of corresponding duty to perform. Slide13
Modes of payments of wages
:
The mode of payment for wage could be in
cash
or
in kind
though ordinarily payment is effected through cash.
As regards to the interval of payment, it could be in
daily, weekly, bi-monthly, monthly
etc.
ENDSlide14
Chapter- II- Some concepts about Individual Employment Relations
Individual employment
relation means is a contractual relation between an employee and his employer in their individual capacity.Slide15
Suspension
is a situation where the employee will not be required to provide
service
to the employer and the employer will not be obligated to
pay wages
and other benefits to
the employee. Nonetheless, their contractual engagement remains
intactSlide16
Ways of suspension
A contract of employment may be suspended for a variety of reasons:
Voluntary arrangement of the parties;
-Societal interest;
-Due to reasons beyond the control of the employer;
-Due to disciplinary
reasoSlide17
Voluntary Suspension
: The employer and the employee may agree to
suspend
their contractual relation for sometime
. For example
, the employee may get an offer for a better pay for six months of employment. In such case he
may request
her employer to grant his leave without pay for six months.Slide18
continue
Within the agreed six months, the employer will not pay the wages and other benefits to the employee, and the employee will not be required to render service for her employer.
At the
expiry of the six
months period, however, the parties will be reinstated to their previous employment relationSlide19
B. Suspension for the benefit of Society
: It is possible that the
employee
may be required to discharge national service (
be it military service or otherwise
).Slide20
C.
Suspension due to reasons beyond the control of the employer
:
At times situations where there is a temporary cassation of the undertaking may occur. Most of these situations are
economic reasons
though there may also other reasons.
For example
, the
Mararey
sugar factory may be compelled to
temporary suspend
its operations fully or partially due to the over flow of the
Shabelle
RiverSlide21
Who shall have the authority to determine the suspension??
Suspension is not within the sole discretion of the employer. It is however, subject to revision by the
Ministry of
Labour
. In order for the Ministry to determine whether the stated reason is
adequate
to suspend operation or not. However, the employer should give prior notice to the Minist
ry within rea
sonable time of period together with grounds of suspension. Slide22
If the Ministry
determines
there is sufficient ground for suspension, it will approve it and fix the duration of it
If the Ministry
determines
that there is no
adequate reason
to withhold operation, it will order the r
esumption
of the activities and
payment of wage
for the days on which the employees were suspended. Slide23
Failure to notify???
If the employer
fails
to inform the Ministry
ofthe
occurrence of a ground for suspension, it will not have valid ground to suspend its operation. Furthermore it may be liable to
fine
for failure to notifySlide24
D)
Disciplinary Suspension
: One
of the prerogatives of an employer is to take
disciplinary action
against an employee.
The employee on its part is required to render faithful service to the employer.
Failure to
observe such faithfulness may subject the employee to disciplinary action. Slide25
How to enforce disciplinary action???
The employer is expected to undertake the necessary
investigatio
n into alleged misconduct of the employee before taking any action. Until such time the investigation is completed, it may be appropriate to
suspend the employee
so that investigation could go smoothly.Slide26
E
:
Consequences of expiry of period of suspension
:
Normally as soon as the duration for suspension
expires
, the employee will be reinstated to his/her previous employment. But there may also be circumstances where suspension may be transformed into
termination
:Slide27
Continue
For instance, in case of disciplinary suspension
(e.g. if the outcome of the investigation shows a serious misconduct attributed to the
employee), the contract of the suspended employee may be terminated. Slide28
Continue--------
In case of suspension for reasons beyond the control of the employer, particularly suspension due
to economic reasons
,(e.g. if the
Mararay
factory cannot resume operation )suspension will be transformed into termination.
Slide29
Termination
is where contract of employment is come to and end.
A contract of employment
may be terminated
by law
on the following grounds
:
Expiry of the period or on the completion
of the work where the contract of employment is for a definite period or piece work;
Death of the worker
;
Retirement of the worker
in accordance with the relevant law;
When the enterprise ceases operation permanently or due to bankruptcy or for any other cause; or
Where the worker is unable to work due to
partial or permanent incapacity. Slide30
The contract may be terminated by the employee
on the following cases:
Where the employer has committed against him any act contrary to his
human dignity
and morals.Slide31
In the case of
imminent danger
threatening the worker’s safety or health, the employer, having been made aware of such danger, and the employer failed to act in time to avert the danger.Slide32
If the employer has repeatedly failed to fulfill his basic obligations towards the worker as prescribed under the lawSlide33
A contract of employment may only be terminated by the employer
on the following grounds:-
Absence
from work without good cause.
Deceitful or fraudulent conduct in carrying out his duties.
Misappropriation
of the property or fund of the employer with intent to procure for himself or a third person undue enrichmentSlide34
Responsibility for causing damage intentionally or through gross negligence to any property of the employer or to another property which is
directly
connected with the work of the employer
.Slide35
Chapter III- Special categories of Employees
A. Probationary employees:
At the commencement of a contract of employment, the employer is entitled to set a
probationary period (i.e.
trial period
). Slide36
The purpose of probation???
The purpose of probation is to test the
suitabilit
y
of the employee to a post in which he is intended to be assigned. Within the trial period, the employer is entitled
to dismiss
the employee with out any procedure if the employer convinced that the employee is unfit for the post.Slide37
B. Apprentice
This is a situation through which the employer agrees to provide a person (i.e. the
apprentice) complete and systematic
training
and the apprentice in return agrees to
serve
under the instruction given to carry out the trainingSlide38
How it beneficial to both parties???
The main interest of the employer in this relationship is not to obtain service it is rather to
provide training
to the apprentice. On the other hand, the main interest of the apprentice, is to acquire skill.
.Slide39
An apprenticeship agreement is an appropriate route in
transferring sk
ill in those trades where skill could be acquired through ―learning by doing‖ mechanism.Slide40
C. Young
employees
These are employees between the age of 14 and 18. Legally speaking, persons below the
age of 18 are minors and due to this status they are not allowed to enter into juridical acts personally.Slide41
D.
Female employees:
It is well known that women have special and irreplaceable reproductive role in society.
Because of this, their biological make up requires
special care
and
attentionSlide42
How to protect female employees
The law tries to regulate the situation of female employees from two angles:-
The first type
of regulation is providing flat protection available to all females by virtue of being female.
The other type
of regulation is providing special provisions for females under particular circumstances such as pregnancy and maternitySlide43
E. Employees with disability:-
Disability
meanspeople
with physical and mental disabilities
Studies have verified that over 600 million people worldwide have a physical, sensory,
intellectual or mental impairment in one form or another. This equals approximately 10%
of the world‘s population.Slide44
Reasonable accommodation to disabilities
Disability can sometimes affect an individual‘s ability to carry out a job in the usual or accustomed way.Slide45
Examples of a reasonable
accommodation:-
an adjusted office chair (for a person with a back impairment),
adapted working hours (e.g. for a person with a medical condition requiring frequent rest-breaks),
a computer keyboard with a Braille reader (for a blind person),
And the assignment of a job coach (e.g. for a person with an intellectual or mental health disabilitySlide46
Chapter IV- Legally stipulated minimum working conditions
a. Minimum Wage
Many jurisdictions have succeeded in prescribing minimum hourly/monthly wages to employees working within their territory.
Others leave this issue to the contracting parties.Slide47
b. Employment security(job security)
Another item for minimum working condition is trying to protect the employee from
unjustified dismissal
. Employment, for a worker, is not only a source of revenue but alsoSlide48
c. Normal Working hours
By normal working hours, we mean those periods in
a day or in a week
which employee regularly renders service to the benefit of his
employer.Slide49
d. Safe and Healthy working conditions
It is well known that industrial activities are
full of risks
.
Risks could be either to life, health, property or the environment
or to all. The Risk may express itself in the
form of accident, occupational disease or environmental pollutionSlide50
E. Preventive measures
At the level of prevention,
the employer
is bound to prevent preventable risks. For
this purpose, it is required to
provide safety equipments and train how and when to make
use of them
.
Nevertheless, it is worth noting that the
employee
has also a
correspondin
g duty at the level of prevention.Slide51
F. Remedial measures
This means once
industrial accident or occupational
disease is sustained,
the employer
is expected to
cover cost of medication
including the cost for any necessary prosthetic or orthopedic appliances so long as the injury is associated with the employment. Slide52
Employment injuries
Employment injury could be categorized into
two:
-They are either occupational
accident
or occupational
diseaseSlide53
A.
Occupational accident
is any organic injury or functional disorder sustained by an employee:
-while carrying out the employer‘s order at a place and time of work ;
-while at the place of work before or after his work or during tea or lunch breaks
-while the employee is proceeding to or from place of work in a transport service
provided by the employer
.
E.g. one
Bekele‟s
right hand was seriously injured while he was operating a machine at his place of work.Slide54
E.g. two
Dahabo
sustained injury when fire broke out at a
cafeteri
a within the compound of her place of work during a
tea break
while she was drinking tea. Although she was not
performing work
at the time of the injury, she was there for the
purpose of the work
and hence her injury can be assimilated to occupational accidentSlide55
E.g. three
Jama
’ was going to his place of work when the car he was in c
ollided
with a train. He thereby sustained serious bodily injury. The vehicle was a bus assigned by his employer to transport employees to and from place of work.
Another workmate of
Jama
’
Shifa
, similarly sustained injury on his way to work place using a taxi.
Shifa
hired the taxi by money he received from his employer in the form of transport allowance.Slide56
Are both cases related to occupational accident?
J
ama
’‟s
injury is occupational accident injury while
Shifa‟s
is not. The reason is
Jama
’ was going to work through a means of transport chosen and assigned by the employer and hence the employer is responsible for the consequences of its actions.
But
Shifa
was proceeding to work through a means of transport chosen by him. Thus he was going to work at his own risk and hence the employer liability.Slide57
B.
Occupational disease
, is any pathological condition whether caused by physical, chemical or biological :-
which rises as a consequence of the type of work performed by
the employee
or the surroundings in which the employee is obliged to work.
Nevertheless, occupational disease does not include
endemic and epidemic
disease which is
prevalen
t(common) in the area where the work is done.Slide58
E.g.
Osman
was a store keeper in a certain cotton plantation in Afar for five years. While at work, he contracted malaria and died due to it. His family instituted a court action against the
cotton plantation
for compensation claiming that their breadwinner died due to occupational disease.Slide59
Solution
The claim of the deceased‘s family is untenable under the law.
Malaria
in afar is an epidemic disease and hence contracting malaria in Afar is a
generally available risk to
inhabitants of the locality whether employed or not. Thus, it cannot be held as occupational diseaseSlide60
Another example,
Seid
is a health officer in the same cotton plantation. His job
responsibility was looking after the well being and health of the employees including
malaria prevention. While on duty, he contracted malaria.Slide61
Solution
It is an occupational disease for
Seid
because he is exposed to increased risk of malaria
contraction more than anybody else due to his job responsibilities. Hence he should be
protected from such risk if he is to effectively render service under the contract.
END