Managing Partner of Prestige Partners, Lamtiig A. Apanga, has urged employees to pay close attention to their terms of termination and leave.
According to him, prospective employees must be circumspect when appending their signatures on contracts for employment. Mr Apanga explained such terms can be implemented at any given moment, as such, they must be diligently scrutinized.
“You have to pay attention to everything but particularly terms on termination, leave. Those are terms that can be triggered at any time, either to your advantage or disadvantage. If you don’t pay attention to the wordings of those conditions, the terms in your employment condition, it may come back to haunt you”.
Lamtiig A. Apanga
Mr Apanga noted that leave is an entitlement enshrined in the Labour Act 2003 (ACT 651) and contract of employment may fail to state the number of leave days one is entitled to as stipulated by the law. He indicated that section 20 of the Labour Act states that: “In any undertaking, every worker is entitled to not less than fifteen working days leave with full pay in any calendar year of continuous service”.
“The expression “full pay” means the worker’s normal remuneration, without overtime payment, including the cash equivalent of any remuneration in kind”.
Lamtiig A. Apanga
A worker, Mr Apanga indicated, may receive more than 15 working days off but cannot be given anything less than the minimum days. In some places, he revealed that, there is a policy that allows one to accumulate his or her leave, and for others, “once you don’t take it, that is it”.
“You can be given more but not less. You are entitled to a minimum of 15 working days of leave, minus weekends and holidays. If your employer, based on the nature of your work wants to give you 21 days or the position you occupy, you are entitled to 21 days or more, that is fine”.
Lamtiig A. Apanga
Dismissal of Domelovo from office
On his part, Managing Partner of Law Alert Group, Charles Bawaduah, indicated that it is unlawful to trade one’s leave for extra pay. He iterated that the “habit” where employees negotiate and take some money and stay at work so they don’t go on leave is against the law.
“The whole thing about leave is to ensure the worker takes some rest. It is not all about money. The worker needs rest to be strong and active to continue to work. So the law says that any agreement to forgo leave is void. It is of no effect”.
Charles Bawaduah
Commenting on the removal of Mr. Yao Domelevo from office as Auditor-General, Mr Apanga expressed that it may have been a decision to teach him a lesson. He intimated that Public Service workers cannot be randomly dismissed from post.
“The law says you can’t do this unless there’s just cause. I mean the very recent situation is what we had with the Domelevo issue. It may not be direct, but one can deduce from the surrounding circumstances of what happened with the investigation of the Senior Minister and some of the findings and decisions he [Domelevo] made and the public outcry. Particularly, it was a way to show him where power lies”.
Lamtiig A. Apanga
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