Publications
Partners
Many Zambians would recall that the tendency of declaring people redundant was very common in the Chiluba era at the time the Zambian government was privatizing state owned companies. Also many Zambian usually associate redundancy with government jobs especially jobs that are associated with political appointment.
But of late redundancy and termination of employment has become a common among private and public companies. There are many companies in Zambia that had continued to declare employees redundant even when government has appeared to employers to stop firing employees without cause.
Among the companies that were often reported to have been declaring employees redundant were public enterprises. Many redundancies at state owned company took place whenever there was a change of government. Now we are told that a named bank and Radio station recently terminated the employment of 10 members of staff.
So, are the Zambian companies using the redundancy or termination of employment clause correctly? Or are Zambian companies abusing this process and using it to fixing employees.
The Labour laws of Zambia states that the contract of service of an employee shall be deemed to have been terminated by reason of redundancy if the termination is wholly or in part due to the employer ceasing or intending to cease to carry on the business by virtue of which the employee was engaged or the business ceasing or reducing the requirement for the employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where the employee was engaged and the business remains a viable going concern.
The Zambian Labour laws also states that whenever an employer intends to terminate a contract of employment for reasons of redundancy;
a) the employer shall provide notice of not less than thirty days to the representative of the employee on the impending redundancies and inform the representative on the number of employees to be affected and the period within which the termination is intended to be carried out;
b) afford the representatives of the employee an opportunity for consultations on-the measures to be taken to minimize the terminations and the adverse effects on the employees;
c) not less than sixty days prior to effecting the termination, notify the proper officer of the impending terminations by reason of redundancy.
It is advised that when selecting who to be declared redundant an employer should apply selection criteria that are reasonable and are applied in a fair manner. It also advised that care must be taken when declaring an employee’s position redundant. It is also advised that employers must ensure that they do not try to use “redundancy” as a means for dismissing troublesome staff.
Before anyone’s employment is terminated, the employer must consider possible alternatives, such as appointment to another role (i.e. redeployment). However, where there are vacant positions that the redundant employee could fill without difficulty or cost, an employer, acting in good faith, will at least have to consider offering one of those positions.
Employees can raise a personal grievance if they believe their employer has acted unjustifiably. The aggrieved part can ask the Court to look at each case individually, whether the redundancy is for genuine commercial reasons or the employer has acted reasonably and fairly in the way the redundancy was carried out.
So in answering the question at hand; Are Zambian employers using the redundancy clause wisely? My answer would be that many Zambian employers use the clause to fix employees.
Therefore, I wish to appeal to many Zambian employers to exercise wisdom when firing employees. As it is said firing employees is not a problem but they way people are fired, is the problem.
