Job Description
What the employment law in Kenya says about salaries and payday
Most employees are more concerned about doing their jobs and getting paid at the end of the month or after the period agreed upon than they are about knowing their employee rights.
You will agree with me that as long as you get your dues as agreed, no questions are asked and neither do you go further to try and discover if the deductions made to your salary are done right. Most will also not question if how the process is done is actually right. But are you allowing employers to take advantage of you?
Sharon* is an Accountant at a telecommunication firm here in Kenya. For the last two months she has not received her salary and her efforts to try and get the issue sorted by Human Resource has now hit the wall.
The response she keeps getting is that her credentials cannot be found in the newly installed payment system and she has to wait until the situation is resolved.
I don’t know about you, but Sharon agrees with me that 2 months is a long time to work and not get paid for it. “How do they think I’ve been surviving? I have used up all my savings and ran out of friends to borrow money from,” she says. And Sharon is surely not alone, with others suffering a much bitter case.
However much you love your job and respect your employer to allow them time to sort a salary issue, a case like Sharon’s is unacceptable both in human nature and under the Kenyan employment law.
What the Law says about salary in Kenya
1. You should be paid on or before agreed pay day
According to the Employment Act of 2007, employers must provide payment for work done before or on the agreed pay day. The payment made is usually calculated hourly, daily, weekly and monthly depending on the type of contract you signed as an employee. This would mean that if you work for a number of hours in a day then you get paid for each hour and if your contract is for periods exceeding one month or for an indefinite period, then pay day would be every other month.
For Susan’s case and anyone yet to receive their salary days or weeks after pay day, then it means that your employer is breaking the law and you are allowed to bring up a law suit to get your dues.
2. You are entitled to receive a pay slip
Did you ever receive your cheque or check your bank balance after pay day, only to ask yourself why the money was lesser than you thought? Well, that’s why it is always important to have your payslip. A pay slip is the document that explains how much money you have been paid as remuneration for your work and how much money has been deducted in terms of taxes, insurance, NSSF requirements or due to any damages.
The pay slip should also include the reason to which each deduction was made in a way that is clear to employees.
3. You should not pay any money for getting a job
Sometime back we received an email from a recently placed job seeker where for the 3 months he was on probation, a certain amount of money was deducted from his salary. When he raised the issue, the employer said that it was policy for every new employee to get a deduction in payment of job placement.
This is by far a crime according to the Kenya employment act and any employer who participates in this kind of unlawful behavior is answerable to the court. So, have you experienced this before or heard of it? I hope you now know that it is prohibited by law.
The Kenya employment act clearly stipulates how salary should be handled and the above mentioned are just the basic. Do your due diligence and learn your employee rights to avoid a situation where employers take advantage of your innocence and ignorance, especially on matters pertaining the employment contract you sign. Also remember that payment should be made during working hours and at a place that is near your work area, if not in the office.
Do you have any questions about salary or pay day as stipulated by law? Leave a comment below.
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