Labor law in Eswatini

An employment relationship may arise from an express or implied contract of service, apprenticeship or traineeship. Oral agreements can be valid, but the employer must provide written particulars when the worker is engaged. These particulars should state the parties, start date, pay and its calculation, payment interval, normal working hours, duties, probation, leave, public holidays, sickness arrangements, maternity protection, notice periods, pension arrangements, union information and the grievance procedure. Written particulars do not necessarily constitute the complete employment contract. The Employment Act 1980, as amended, covers core employment rights and duties. The Industrial Relations Act 2000, including the 2014 amendments, regulates trade unions, collective bargaining and labor disputes. The Wages Act 1964 supports sectoral wage regulation through Wages Councils and Regulation of Wages Orders. The Workmen’s Compensation Act 1983 covers employment injuries and occupational disease. The Occupational Safety and Health Act 2001 gives workplace inspectors powers to require improvements, prohibit dangerous activities and prosecute breaches. The Employment Bill 2024 remains a reform proposal; according to the Ministry of Labour and Social Security’s 2024/25 performance report, it was still listed as a future plan and had not replaced the Employment Act 1980. Eswatini does not have one uniform national maximum working-time limit under the core Employment Act. Sectoral orders can set different normal hours and overtime rules. Examples from 2024 include 45 hours over six days in handicraft work, 60 hours over five twelve-hour days in security work, and 54 hours over six days in agriculture, with some agricultural functions reaching 60 hours. Domestic employees generally have a statutory limit of eight hours per day and 48 hours over six days, plus one rest day each week. Overtime commonly attracts at least one and a half times the normal rate, while Sunday and public-holiday work commonly attracts twice the normal rate; the applicable sectoral order must be checked. Eswatini has no single national minimum wage covering every occupation. Wages Councils set minimum rates through sectoral orders, with rates depending on the sector, occupation and category. The 2025 budget referred to 18 regulated sectors, while 2024 gazettes contained 11 sectoral orders, including handicraft, agriculture, motor engineering, mining and quarrying, funeral undertakers, micro-money lenders, schools, preschools and day-care, security, retail and wholesale trade, and domestic employees. A higher contractual wage generally remains protected. Employers must pay in legal tender unless the worker consents to payment by cheque, postal order or money order. Payment intervals may be daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly, but the interval may not exceed one month. Employers must provide payslips and keep wage, employment and leave registers. Service charges must be distributed to employees, and unlawful deductions or underpayment can lead to sanctions. After 12 months of service, a worker generally receives at least two weeks of paid annual leave under the Employment Act, although a sectoral order may provide more, such as 22 days or one month in some 2024 orders. After three months, sick leave generally includes 14 days on full pay and a further 14 days on half pay per year, subject to a medical certificate. Maternity leave lasts at least 12 weeks, including at least two weeks on full pay under section 102. A nursing employee is generally entitled to at least one hour for nursing each day for three months. No general statutory paternity leave was identified in the available national research. The Constitution recognizes worker rights. Employment law protects against discrimination, retaliation and unfair dismissal. Industrial employment of children below 15 is generally prohibited, subject to narrow exceptions. A child may work no more than six hours per day or 33 hours per week and may not work during school hours or at night. Night work is generally prohibited for young persons. Employers and occupiers have duties under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. These duties can include workplace safety policies, safety committees, accident and occupational-disease notifications and suitable first-aid arrangements. Inspectors may issue Improvement Notices or Prohibition Notices. A person affected by a notice generally has 28 days to appeal. The Workmen’s Compensation system places liability for work injuries and occupational disease on the employer. Employers generally must maintain insurance unless they are the Government. An accident should be reported without delay, a claim is generally made within six months, and the absolute outer limit is three years. The employer generally has seven days to submit its report. Trade unions, staff associations, employers’ organizations, federations, Works Councils, Joint Industrial Councils and collective agreements form the representation system. Union recognition is generally required when at least 50% of fully paid unionisable employees support the union; below that level, recognition is generally left to the employer’s discretion. Collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts must follow the Industrial Relations Act procedures. Strikes and lockouts are prohibited in essential services such as water, electricity, fire services, health, sanitation, telecommunications, broadcasting and the civil government service. A workplace dispute should normally pass through the employer’s internal grievance or disciplinary procedure first. A report of dispute can then be referred to the Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration Commission, known as CMAC, in the prescribed form. Current CMAC guidance refers to an 18-month referral period. CMAC may use pre-conciliation, conciliation, mediation or arbitration. If the dispute remains unresolved, CMAC can issue a Certificate of Unresolved Dispute, allowing the matter to proceed to the Industrial Court. An arbitration award can be enforced like an Industrial Court order. The Industrial Court of Appeal generally hears questions of law, with appeals usually filed within three months. CMAC is generally presented as an accessible and lower-cost process, while Industrial Court filing fees are set by regulations. Probation may last up to three months. A longer or specially defined probation arrangement for supervisory, technical or confidential work should be recorded in writing. Notice periods depend on length of service and payment interval. For employer termination, the usual periods are one week for service below three months, two days for each completed month between three and twelve months, and one month plus four days for each completed year after the first year when service exceeds twelve months. Monthly-paid workers generally receive at least one month’s notice, and fortnightly-paid workers at least two weeks. After three months, an employee generally gives at least one week’s notice. Payment in lieu of notice may be possible. During employer notice, the employee generally receives 12 hours per week to seek another job. Summary dismissal requires just cause. Dismissal can be unfair when connected with union activity, employee representation, a good-faith complaint, protected characteristics, work-related incapacity, or sickness or accident within six months. Fair reasons can include misconduct after a warning, violence, dishonesty, damage, a safety breach, absence for more than three working days in 30 days without permission or a certificate, redundancy or normal retirement age. The employer bears the burden of proving a lawful reason and reasonableness. Severance is generally ten working days’ wages for each completed year above one year, subject to statutory exceptions for specified fair-dismissal grounds. Redundancy affecting five or more employees requires at least one month’s notice to the Labour Commissioner and, where relevant, the organization named in a collective agreement. The notice should include the number of affected employees, their occupations and wages, reasons, proposed date, financial statements and options considered to avoid the redundancies. An employee can request a certificate of employment. When an employer-initiated termination follows relocation, the employer generally bears repatriation costs. The Industrial Court should consider reinstatement or re-engagement as priority remedies in unfair-dismissal cases. Compensation can reach 12 months’ remuneration, or up to 24 months for automatically unfair dismissal. Other possible remedies include notice pay, leave pay, severance and statutory benefits. The Department of Labour, Labour Commissioner, General Labour Inspectorate, Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate and Workmen’s Compensation Unit support enforcement. Practical compliance problems identified by the Ministry include missing written particulars, underpayment, missing payslips and registers, unpaid severance or terminal benefits, inadequate first-aid equipment and missing wage charts. Domestic and agricultural work have sector-specific rules, while informal work has less consistent formal protection and greater enforcement gaps.