Uganda - Working time - 2011

17 November 2011.

The Employment Act, Uganda Gazette, n. 36, Vol XCVIX, 8th June 2006

"employee" means any person who has entered into a contract of service or an apprenticeship contract, including, without limitation, any person who is employed by or for the Government of Uganda, including the Uganda Public Service, a local authority or a parastatal organisation but excludes a member of the Uganda People’s Defence Forces.

"Employer" means any person or group of persons, including a company or corporation, a public, regional or local authority, a governing body of an unicorporated association, a partnership, parastatal organisation or other institution or organisation whatsoever, for whom an employee works or has worked, or normally worked or sought to work, under a contract of service, and includes the heirs, successors, assignees and, transferors of any person or group of persons for whom an employee works, has worked, or normally works.

"Child" means a person below the age of 18 years.

Subject to subsections (2) and (3), in all establishments, the maximum working hours for employees shall be forty eight hours per week.

The employer and the employee may agree that the maximum working hours per week shall not be less than forty eight hours.
Subject to subsection (4), an employer and employee may agree that the normal working hours in a week shall be more than forty eight hours.
Hours of work shall not, except as provided in subsection (5), exceed ten hours per day or fifty six hours per week.
Where persons are employed in shifts, it shall be permissible to employ persons in excess of ten hours in any one days or 48 hours in any one week, where the average number of hours over a period of three weeks exceeds neither 10 hours per day nor 56 hours per week.

The Minister may, after consultation with the Labour Advisory Board, and subject to the provisions of this section and section 54, regulate the maximum number of hours per week including overtime work, which may be worked in any industry or occupation and may, by order, provide for temporary exceptions in extraordinary situations where the public interest so requires.

Where hours in excess of 8 hours per day or 48 hours per week are worked, they shall, in the absence of a written agreement ot the contrary, be remunerated at the minimum rate of one and half times of the normal hourly rate if the overtime is on the normal working days, and two times the hourly rate where the overtime is worked on gazetted public holidays.

In any establishment where the maximum working hours are at least 8 hours per day, a 30 minute break shall be granted each day to the employees.

An employee shall not be required to work for an employer for more than six consecutive days without a day’s rest, which shall be taken on any day which is customary or as shall be agreed between the parties.

The Minister may by regulations exclude from the operation of this section -
a) Persons holding high managerial positions; and
b) Persons working in family establishments employing not more than five dependent relatives.

An employee shall not be required to work for an employer for more than six consecutive days without a day¿s rest, which shall be taken on any day which is customary or as shall be agreed between the parties.

The Minister may by regulations exclude from the operation of this section -
a) Persons holding high managerial positions; and
b) Persons working in family establishments employing not more than five dependent relatives.

This section shall apply only to employees -
a) who have performed continuous service for their employer for a minimum period of six months;
b) who normally work under a contract of service for sixteen hours a week or more.

Subject to the provisions of this section -
a) an employee shall, once in every calendar year, be entitled to a holiday with full pay at the rate of seven days in respect of each period of a continuous four months’s service, to be taken at such time during such calendar year as may be agreed between the parties; and
b) an employee shall be entitled to a day’s holiday with full pay on every public holiday during his or her employment or, where he or she works for his or her employer on a public holiday, to a day’s holiday with full pay at the expense of the employer on some other day that would otherwise be a day of work.

Subject to subsection (2), any agreement to relinquish the right to the minimum annual holiday as prescribed in this section, or to forgo such a holiday, for compensation or otherwise, shall be null and void.