Employees Rights in Rwanda compared to United Kingdom

Altered strategies are used by company to be determined on the market place. On the other hand the main effective and competitive benefit is the company’s human resource because no any company can work without successful, skilful and creative employees. This is why, there is a necessity for a company to protect the employees’ rights as well as guarantee obvious interior system and policies in order to recompense for the space recognised in the active regulations or rules.

The vital points of this work focus on the following six key points.

In general, Rwanda labour law does not distinguish between the various types of contract of employment in relation to termination of employment. But UK labour law, a contract of employment refers to a contract of service or apprenticeship. It can be express or implied, and if it is express, it can be oral. In addition to contracts of indefinite duration, there are fixed, short-term, and probationary, and apprenticeship contracts.

It is in regards, benefit of the proposed changes above are undertaken and implemented, and then the employers will benefit from the following: Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees, increased employee motivation. Greater confidence and motivation leads staff to become less reliant on management and supervision.

Trained and motivated staff will give the business the competitive edge by: increasing productivity and standards in production, therefore boosting the business reputation

Organisational structure represents framework of the human resource and the responsibilities for different functions and processes to be clearly allocated in different departments and employees. It is proposed that organisational structures should be aiming at maximising the efficiency and success of the organisation. An effective structure will facilitate working relationships between various sections of the organisation. It will maintain order and command while promoting flexibility and creativity within the organisation.

TQM is the process of exchanging the fundamental culture of an organization and redirecting it to words superior product or service quality (Garther 1996).

TQM can be defined as a general management philosoph asset of tools which allow an institution to pursue definition of quality being continuous with the services they have received (Michael 1997).Benefits of TQM include heightened employee morale, better team work among departments. Concept of the TQM philosophy is the focus on continuous improvement. Traditional systems operated on the assumption that once a company achieved a certain level of quality, it was successful and needed no further improvements.

The Network Management Centre (NMC) is an operations centre employed to deal with network resources such as the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC), base stations and location registers. The Network Management Centres function is to offer the constant inspection and manage activities needed to maintain the network at its best stage of performance.

The Operation and maintenance Centre (OMC) planned for the maintenance and operation management of an operator telecommunication networks, presenting at least effort and shows communication resources for an operator or other exterior control application tools to examination information related with telecommunication network fundamentals under the management ability to set up command routine to control said network elements and to communicate said performance to the network essentials

INTRODUCTION.

Human Resource Management is the organisational function that deals with issues related to people such as compensation, hiring, performance management, organisation development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration and Training

Human resources tasks are normally divided into three main parts of management: recruitment, designing work and employee compensation. Fundamentally, the function of HRM is to exploit the production of an organisation by optimising the value of its employees. This authorisation is not likely to vary in any basic way, in spite of the ever increasing speed of transform in the production world.

The Human Resources Management (HRM) function includes a variety of activities, and key among them is deciding what staffing needs you have and whether to use independent contractors or hire employees to fill these needs, recruiting and training the best employees, ensuring they are high performers, dealing with performance issues, and ensuring your personnel and management practices conform to various regulations. Activities also include managing your approach to employee benefits and compensation, employee records and personnel policies.

1: COMPARISON OF EMPLOYEE RIGHTS RWANDA VS UK

Rwanda labour law is referred to as LAW N° 51/2001 OF 30/12/2001 establishing the labour code in Rwanda. It is the February 28 1967 revised labour law.

The labour law is made of a total of 199 Articles. In Rwanda the legislation giving specific protection in relation to termination of employment has been enacted in the form of the Labour Code of 30 December 2001 (as referred to as LAW N° 51/2001).

For Public Services in Rwanda, regulations and laws are defined in the General Statutes for Rwanda Public Service LAW N°22/2002 of 09 July 2002.

In the following paragraphs we will describe the main comparison points between the UK and Rwanda labour laws.

Contract of employment

In general, Rwanda labour law does not distinguish between the various types of contract of employment in relation to termination of employment.

In the UK labour law, a contract of employment refers to a contract of service or apprenticeship. It can be express or implied, and if it is express, it can be oral. In addition to contracts of indefinite duration, there are fixed, short-term, and probationary, and apprenticeship contracts. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ifpdial/info/termination/countries/uk.htm

Age Discrimination

The age discrimination is defined as the act to prevent any work candidate or salary payment based on his age. This happens in some organization that specifies the type of job and the age required to do the job or low payment to young and older workers. But this is right in some cases to avoid child’s work abuse and force labour as well as avoid retirement for aged workers.

Like race and gender discrimination, age discrimination, at least when it affects younger workers, can result in unequal pay for equal work. Unlike race and gender discrimination, age discrimination in wages is often enshrined in law.http://citizendia.org/Ageism

According to the current Rwanda Labour Law (Article 11), it is prohibited to hire for labour a child under the age of sixteen. However, where the child has reached the age of fourteen, to respect the provisions of articles 64, 65, 66 and 67 of this law, he/she may be hired with special authorisation from anyone who has parental authority on him/her.

In its Article 89 the Rwanda Labour Law states that an underage worker validly acknowledges receipt from his/her employer except in the case of explicit and justified opposition by the family representative.

The current Rwanda labour law does not contain any article about the retirement and pension fund. This is mainly managed by the social security fund from its internal regulations. The workers will not be able to make a plan for retirement

The UK Labour Law includes a clause that protects individuals who are 40 years of age or older. While older workers benefit from higher wages than younger workers, they face barriers in promotions and hiring. Employers may also encourage early retirement or lay off disproportionately older/more experienced workers. In order to protect all those groups of employees the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 was established and it is being used by the UK regulations.

The UK act against age discrimination also specifically prohibits:

– Statements or specifications in job notices or advertisements of age preference and limitations. An age limit may only be specified in the rare circumstance where age has been proven to be a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ);

– Discrimination on the basis of age by apprenticeship programs, including joint labour-management apprenticeship programs; and

– Denial of benefits to older employees. An employer may reduce benefits based on age only if the cost of providing the reduced benefits to older workers is the same as the cost of providing benefits to younger workers

Termination of employment

According to the Rwanda Labour Law 2001, the contract of employment can terminate, not at the initiative of the employer, in certain circumstances, including by:

• The expiry of a fixed-term contract; and

• The completion of the task for which a contract was concluded.

Employment relationship may be terminated by mutual agreement of the parties concerned in the UK labour law. The employee is entitled to terminate an employment contract at will (by the provision of due notice), unless otherwise agreed in the contract. The employee must typically give one week notice if he or she chooses to terminate the contract (section. 86(2), ERA).

Severance and Redundancy Pay

The Rwanda Labour Law does not define regulations about the redundancy and severance payments. An employer is not required to pay severance on termination of employment if the employee has completed longer periods of continuous service with an employer and the employer terminates the employment. http://www.ilo.org/public/english/dialogue/ifpdial/info/termination/countries

According to the UK law, no severance payment is offered if an employee was terminated because of misconduct or personal attributes. However, an employee whose contract has been terminated on the grounds of redundancy is entitled to receive a redundancy payment in accordance with sec. 135 of the ERA.

Employment Disputes

The Rwanda Labour Law (Article 182) states the following about how to redress individual or collective employment disputes.

When there are individual or collective labour disputes and prior to their submission before court, the concerned person requests, in writing or verbally, the employees’ representatives to try to settle these disputes out of courts.

Where the employees’ representative fails to settle the disputes, the any concerned person forwards the case to Labour Inspector for reasonable settlement.

Settlement of the claim is postponed by that request from its receipt date until the statement of an attempt to the settlement is disputes on the employee and employer.

Payment when the employer is insolvent

The Rwanda Labour Law does not define measures to be taken by employees when the employer becomes insolvent. This means that when the employer is insolvent it is up to both parties to agree on the payment terms; otherwise no claim should be made by employees.

In UK, if your employer becomes insolvent you have a number of options open to you. When an employer has no money to pay the people they owe in full and they have to make special arrangements to try to meet these debts. As defined in the UK labour law, in case of an insolvent employer the employees may get paid by the following organisations: http://www.desktoplawyer.co.uk

The Insolvency Service’s Redundancy Payments Offices are responsible for paying the following claims:

Redundancy pay

Wages (including protective awards)

Holiday Pay

Notice pay

Basic award for unfair dismissal

Unpaid pension contributions

HMRC are responsible for the following claims (for entitlement continuing on after the insolvency date):

Statutory sick pay

Maternity pay

Paternity pay

Adoption pay

There is no guarantee in insolvency that all the debts can be met in full. That is why there are special arrangements to ensure that you receive a basic minimum of the debts owed from the National Insurance Fund.

Dismissal

The Article 21 or the Rwanda Labour Law says that any dismissal of an employee bound by a contract of employment for a non-determined duration is based on legitimate grounds and after the employee has had the possibility to defend him/her against allegations stated against him/her. In the case of protest before the authorised administrative or legal instances, proof for the existence of such legitimate grounds is incumbent upon the employer.

According to Rwanda Labour Law, termination of employment is unfair if the employer fails to prove that the reason for the termination is valid, that the reason is fair and that the employment was terminated in accordance with fair procedure. A ‘fair’ reason is one that is related to the employee’s conduct, capacity or compatibility; or is based on the operational requirements of the employer. http://usep-ic.forumsmotions.com/hrm

In the UK law, Protection against unfair dismissal requires that one be employed for at least one year (sec. 108, ERA). Everyone, however, is protected against dismissal based on the exercise of statutory and workplace rights, personal reasons, union membership, civic duty, sex and racial discrimination. However, the Race Relations Act does not cover employment in private households, unless the discrimination is by way of victimization [1] .

Notice and prior procedure safeguard

In the Rwanda Labour Law, the probation employment contracts may be terminated without notice and without any of both parties being right to claim compensation allowances, unless stated otherwise in conventional provisions.

In the case of termination before its term for a contract subject to the provisions of article 7 of this Law, the employer must inform about it the jurisdiction’s Government Labour Inspector within fifteen days.

The contract of employment for a non- determined duration can always be terminated by the will of either of the parties but for justifiable reasons. This termination is subject to a prior notice given by the party taking initiative of termination.

Where no collective convention is available, the notice’s duration is fixed by a decree from the Minister holding labour in his/her attributions, taking into account notably the duration of the contract and professional categories.

The notice must be given in writing to the interested party. The notice cannot be subject to any suspensive condition. In the case of breach of contract at the employer’s initiative, the dismissal’s grounds are mentioned in the letter of notice.

According UK Labour Law, if the employee has been continuously employed for at least one month, an employer is required to give notice before termination. The length of notice relates to the length of continuous uninterrupted service, according to the provisions of section 86 of the ERA. As regards dismissals on disciplinary grounds, since 2004 employers have been required to follow a three-step disciplinary procedure, this includes

sending the employee a written statement alleging conduct or circumstances which lead the employer

The employer is required to inform the employee of his/her decision and of the right to appeal against it.

Meeting between the employer and employee in case if the latter wished to appeal.

If more than 10 employees are terminated because of a redundancy, the employer must notify the Secretary of State in writing (section 193, TULRCA).

Employee Minimum Wage

The UK labour law has defined a minimum level of pay, called the National Minimum Wage. The level is set by the government each year based on the recommendations of the independent Low Pay Commission (LPC). With a few exceptions, all workers in the UK aged 16 or over are legally entitled to be paid a minimum amount per hour (In 2008 the National Minimum Wage is 5.75£ per hour). This is regardless of the kind of work they do or the size and type of company. The minimum wage is reviewed yearly.

The Rwanda Labour Law does not include any policy about the minimum wage. The employer has to negotiate with employee about the salary to be paid and for how often. This leads to the situation where many employees are paid a low salary (as stated in their individual contracts), which is under the real cost of life in the country. Other consequences are the low purchase power in the markets.

2. BENEFITS OF THE PROPOSED CHANGES

2.1. BENEFITS OF EMPLOYER.

If the proposed changes above are undertaken and implemented, then the employers will benefit from the following:

Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees

Increased employee motivation. Greater confidence and motivation leads staff to become less reliant on management and supervision.

Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain

Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods

Increased innovation in strategies and products

Trained and motivated staff who understand the specifics of business operations.

Trained and motivated staff will give the business the competitive edge by:

increasing productivity and standards in production, therefore boosting the business reputation

being able to undertake a greater variety of work and therefore allow the business to expand or open up new markets

allowing the business to bid for more specialised, high value contracts

Assisting the business to meet business objectives faster.

2.2. BENEFITS TO CUSTOMERS.

Benefits of a customer depend on the good service delivered and quality of work, care given. If the employer respects the international labour laws and give all employees rights stated by the law, like good pay, health insurance and social security fund. Motivated employees will find it easy do his/her work efficiently and effectively without any problem in giving the best service to its customers, hence benefiting the clients/ customers.

The organisations employees depending on how there are treated or motivated are the ones determining the number of clients for the company. This implies that, meeting customer demands or needs is critical to success of any company’s growth, by giving the customers the products and service they want or deserve.

2.3. BENEFITS OF SHAREHOLDER.

The following are benefits of the proposed changes if implemented and enforced to the shareholders:

High labour productivity increases business output and can open a greater share of the market or expand it by improving products, services and reputations.

Increased quality and flexibility of a business’s services fostered by:

Accuracy and efficiency

Good work safety practices

Better customer service.

• Increase in staff retention which is a significant cost saving, as the loss of one competent person can be the equivalent of one year’s pay and benefits.

• Reduced costs by decreasing:

– Workplace accidents, leading to lower insurance premiums as a result of upholding the health and safety policy

– Recruitment costs through the internal promotion of skilled staff

– Absenteeism as a result of implementing the absentee policy

• Ensure that the businesses stay competitive in a global market by continually hanger their work practices and infrastructure.

3. PROPOSED COMPANY STRUCTURE.

Organisations are structured in a variety of ways, depending on the company’s objectives and culture. The structure of an organisation will determine the manner in which it operates and its performance. Organisational structure represents framework of the human resource and the responsibilities for different functions and processes to be clearly allocated in different departments and employees.

Organisational structures should be aiming at maximising the efficiency and success of the organisation. An effective structure will facilitate working relationships between various sections of the organisation. It will maintain order and command while promoting flexibility and creativity within the organisation.

3.1 ORGANISATION CHART

Shareholders

Chief Human Capital Officer

(CHCO)

Chief Technical Officer

(CTO)

Director

Corporate Affairs

And

Regulation

Chief Operating Officer

(COO)

Chief Financial Officer

(CFO)

Company Secretary

Board of Directors

Chief Executive Officer

(CEO)

Sales and marketing

Technical staff

HRM

HRD

Customer Care

Figure 1: Organisation Chart

3.2 RESPONSIBILITIES AND ITS ROLES.

Shareholder:

Shareholder is someone who buys shares/ a portion of a public or private company’s capital. By doing so that person becomes a shareholder in that company’s daily business control.

Board of Directors:

Board of Directors is appointed to act on behalf of the shareholders to run day to day affairs of the organisation businesses.

Board of directors determines the company’s vision and mission to guide and set the pace for its current operations and future development, values to be promoted throughout and review goals and policies of the company.

Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

In an organization that has a board of directors, the “chief executive officer” is (usually) the singular organizational position that is primarily responsible to carry out the strategic plans and policies as established by the board of directors. In this case, the chief executive reports to the board of directors. The CEO also supports motivation of employees in organization products/programs and operations

Director Corporate Affairs and Regulation

This director will be responsible for;

Corporate communications

Corporate Social Responsibility

Legal and regulatory issues

Company Secretary

Chief Human Capital Officer.

CHCO is responsible for Department-wide policy and oversight in all areas of human capital management and civil rights, including employment and staffing, compensation, benefits, executive resources, succession planning, labour and employee relations, workforce development, performance management, diversity management, equal employment opportunity and external civil rights enforcement.  The Office also provides for the full range of human resource services to support operations of Departmental Offices and executes Treasury’s responsibilities for certain retirement benefits for District of Columbia police officers, fire-fighters, teachers and judges.

The CHCO is responsible for setting the stage and giving direction for the competency requirements of employees at various levels and thus provides a base for recruitment policies and procedures. This should result in strengthening the recruitment policies and procedures.

Roles of Chief Human Capital Officer.

Establish and maintain policies, procedures, and strategies for executing the military spouse intern program in accordance with regulation and merit system principles.

Liaison with DoD and provide oversight for the program.

Provide guidance and strategic direction to departmental elements for compliance with law and regulation.

Provide training for HR professionals and hiring managers in the application of military spouse hiring authorities.

Develop training system for employee. This involves identifying training needs and utilization of training inputs and learning for organization growth and development.

Hiring the right people to take the company where it wants to go that would involve having a methodical approach for selecting people according to what a company needs.

Chief Financial Officer.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

Responsible for Financial/Regulatory/Secretarial Functions.

Establish and monitor corporate financial policies.

Responsible for strategic business planning to facilitate fiscal discipline.

Budgeting, Finance Planning, Handling Tax matters, Preparing annuals business plans and budgets.

Responsible for strategic business planning to facilitate fiscal discipline.

Analysis and monitoring of monthly, annual corporate and statutory accounts.

Drafting of resolutions for the meetings of Board of Directors / Shareholders involving joint venture agreements, lending / borrowing agreement from Banks / Financial Institution & mutual Fund agencies, take over, merger, absorption proposals and / or sale / purchase of undertaking / undertakings.

Chief Operating Officer (COO)

A Chief Operating Officer can be one of the highest-ranking executives in an organization and comprises part of the “C-Suite”. The COO is responsible for the daily operation of the company. The COO routinely reports to the highest ranking executive, usually the CEO and may also carry the title of President, especially if the highest ranking executive is the Chairman and CEO. In some cases, the duties of COO may be carried out by a sub-C-Suite executive such as a “Director of Operations” or “Vice-President of Operations”

The role of the COO differs from industry to industry and from organization to organization. Some organizations function without a COO, such as CIBC (see below). Others may have a couple COOs each assigned to oversee several business lines or divisions, such as Lehman Brothers from 2002-04 when Bradley Jack and Joseph M. Gregory were the co-COO. . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_operating_officer

Chief Technical Officer (CTO)

A Chief Technical Officer is an executive-level position in a company or other entity whose occupant is focused on scientific and technological issues within an organization. It typically involves overseeing Research and Development (R&D) activities, and formulating long-term visions and strategies at the officer level. Essentially, a CTO is responsible for the transformation of capital – be it monetary, intellectual, or political – into technology in furtherance of the company’s objectives. They must typically combine a strong technical or scientific background with business development skills. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_technical_officer

The role became prominent with the ascent of the information technology (IT) industry, but has since become prevalent in technology-based industries of all types (e.g. biotechnology, energy, etc.). As a corporate officer position, the CTO typically reports directly to the CEO and is primarily concerned with long-term and “big picture” issues (while still having deep technical knowledge of the relevant field). Depending on company structure and hierarchy, there may also be positions such as Director of R&D and VP of Engineering whom the CTO interacts with and/or oversees. The CTO also needs a working familiarity with Intellectual Property (IP) issues (e.g. patents, trade secrets, license contracts), and an ability to interface with legal counsel to incorporate those considerations into strategic planning and inter-company negotiations.

4. EXPLANATION OF TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT

TQM is the process of exchanging the fundamental culture of an organization and redirecting it to words superior product or service quality (Garther 1996).

TQM can be defined as a general management philosoph asset of tools which allow an institution to pursue definition of quality being continuous with the services they have received (Michael 1997)

Benefits of TQM include heightened employee morale, better team work among departments.

4.1. The Philosophy of TQM

Customer Focus

The first, and overriding, feature of TQM is the company’s focus on its customers.

Quality is defined as meeting or exceeding customer expectations. The goal is to first identify and then meet customer needs. TQM recognizes that a perfectly produced product has little value if it is not what the customer wants. Therefore, we can say that quality is customer driven. However, it is not always easy to determine what the customer wants, because tastes and preferences change. Also, customer expectations often vary from one customer to the next. For example, in the auto industry trends change relatively quickly, from small cars to sports utility vehicles and back to small cars. Companies need to continually gather information by means of focus groups, market surveys, and customer interviews in order to stay in tune with what customers want.

They must always remember that they would not be in business if it were not for their customers.

Continuous Improvement

Another concept of the TQM philosophy is the focus on continuous improvement.

Traditional systems operated on the assumption that once a company achieved a certain level of quality, it was successful and needed no further improvements. We tend to think of improvement in terms of plateaus that are to be achieved, such as passing a certification test or reducing the number of defects to a certain level.

Table 1 – Concepts of the TQM Philosophy

Now let’s look at two approaches that can help companies with continuous improvement:

The plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycle describes the activities a company needs to perform in order to incorporate continuous improvement in its operation.

Another way companies implement continuous improvement is by studying business practices of companies considered “best in class.” This is called benchmarking. The ability to learn and study how others do things is an important part of continuous improvement.

Employee Empowerment

Part of the TQM philosophy is to empower all employees to seek out quality problems and correct them. Employees are rewarded for uncovering quality problems, not punished.

Workers are empowered to make decisions relative to quality in the production process. They are considered a vital element of the effort to achieve high quality. Their contributions are highly valued, and their suggestions are implemented. In order to perform this function, employees are given continual and extensive training in quality measurement tools.

To further stress the role of employees in quality, TQM differentiates between external and internal customers. External customers are those that purchase the company’s goods and services. Internal customers are employees of the organization who receive goods or services from others in the company.

5. PROPOSED CUSTOMISED NETWORKS MANAGEMENT CENTRE.

The Network Management Centre (NMC) is an operations centre employed to deal with network resources such as the Mobile Switching Centre (MSC), base stations and location registers. The Network Management Centres function is to offer the constant inspection and manage activities needed to maintain the network at its best stage of performance. NMC intention is to deal with market needs and meet customer expectations as the same time to maximise revenues from the demand of