Part I – Preliminary

1. Citation

This Act may be cited as the Employment Act.

2. Application

(1)Subject to subsection (2), this Act applies to the private sector and the Government, including any public authority or enterprise.

(2)This Act does not apply to members of the armed forces, the prisons service or the police, except those employed in a civilian capacity.

3. Interpretation

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—“Commissioner” means the Labour Commissioner appointed pursuant to section 8;“Court” means the Industrial Relations Court established under section 110 (2) of the Constitution;“employee” means—(a)a person who offers his services under an oral or written contract of employment, whether express or implied;(b)any person, including a tenant share cropper, who performs work or services for another person for remuneration or reward on such terms and conditions that he is in relation to that person in a position of economic dependence on, and under an obligation to perform duties for, that person more closely resembling the relationship of employee than that of an independent contractor; or(c)where appropriate, a former employee;“employer” means—(a)any person, body corporate, undertaking, public authority or body of persons who or which employs an employee and includes heirs, successors and assignees of the employer; or(b)where appropriate, a former employer;“forced labour” means any work or service that is exacted from any person under the threat of any penalty and is not offered voluntarily, but does not include—(a)any compulsory military service or work of a purely military character;(b)any work or service that forms part of the normal communal or civil obligations of citizens of Malawi;(c)any work or service exacted from a person as a consequence of a conviction by any court:Provided the person is not hired by or placed at the disposal of a private individual, company or association and the work or service is carried out under the supervision and control of a public authority;(d)any work or service exacted in emergency situations where the life or well being of the whole or part of the population is endangered, but only to the extent that the requiring of such labour is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances; or(e)minor communal services of a kind performed by members of the community in the direct interest of the community:Provided that the members of the community have been consulted concerning the need for such services;“industrial undertakings” mean—(a)mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of minerals;(b)undertakings in which articles are manufactured, altered, cleaned, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including undertakings engaged in food processing, agro-processing activities, ship building or in the generation, transformation or transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind; or(c)undertakings engaged in building and civil engineering work, including constructional, repair, maintenance, alteration and demolition work;“labour officer” includes the Commissioner, Regional Labour Officer and District Labour Officer;“remuneration” means the wage or salary and any additional benefits, allowances or emoluments whatsoever payable, directly or indirectly, whether in cash or in kind, by the employer to the employee and arising out of the employee’s employment;“wage” means all earnings, however designated or calculated, capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by mutual agreement or by law, which are payable by virtue of a written or unwritten contract of employment by an employer to an employee for work done or to be done or for service rendered or to be rendered.

Documents that cite this provision

Unlock this feature

Start My MalawiLII

Already have an account? Log in.