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  1. Overview: Tanzania
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Global HR Compliance in Tanzania

If you hire international workforce, or plan to hire, then Hiring and Firing Workforce in Tanzania Guide below will help you understand the nuances of labor legislation in the country.

Companies hire international workforce for various reasons but in most cases they are:

  • entering the foreign markets to sell company products. To do so, the company hires sales representatives who would represent their product and sell it to their local client base.
  • hiring a global talent with unique skills that is unavailable in the local market or costs the company less than the talent with similar skills hired in the home country.

Before entering a certain foreign market or engaging a global talent, it is crucial for the company to understand how it can make local hires and reward its workers on a monthly basis. Growing companies often face a challenge of paying benefits and bonuses to the commission-based independent sales representatives they are working with.

If you intend to hire and pay your foreign workforce in full compliance with labor laws and regulations of Tanzania, then the Global Employer of Record service from Acumen International may be the best way for you to go. We are an International PEO company and we specialize in global employment, meaning we can employ your employees in Tanzania and act as their legal employer on your behalf. We will payroll your foreign workforce monthly and provide benefits to them through our global network so you don’t have to set up your own legal entities there.

We are experts in global workforce employment in Tanzania, and our goal is to become your single provider. Instead of working with numerous local staffing agencies and legal advisors, Acumen International can solve your global business challenges and save you time, costs, and resources.

Our team of English-speaking professionals frees you from working through language nuances. Acumen International works 24/7 and can assist you whenever you need, regardless of time zones. Our goal is to create tailored labor solutions for you that are managed legally and in full compliance with the local employment laws.

With our knowledge and deep understanding of local nuances, you easily satisfy your need for skilled professionals in your global industry. With our qualified local partners, you can trust that your global workforce satisfies all local tax, social security, and immigration requirements in Tanzania.

See Hiring and Firing Workforce in Tanzania Guide below for a general overview of labor rules and regulations in the country. Or contact us if you need to employ workers in Tanzania or would like to get more details.

Hiring and Firing Workforce in Tanzania Guide

# Employment Agreements

The employment contract may be of definite or indefinite period or for a specific task.

Permanent employment contracts 

An employment contract must state the following information:

  • Name
  • Age
  • Permanent address and sex of the worker
  • Place of recruitment
  • Job description
  • Date of commencement
  • Form and duration of the contract
  • Place of work
  • Hours of work
  • Remuneration, the method of its calculation, and details of any benefits or payments in kind
  • Any other prescribed matter.

The employer must ensure that all the written particulars are clearly explained to the worker in a manner understandable by the worker. If there is a change in any of the written particular, the employer is required to revise the written particulars in consultation with the worker to reflect the changes. Employer must notify the worker about the change in writing.

Fixed-term / open-ended contracts 

Employment and Labor Relations (General) Regulations, stipulate that the fixed term contract for professionals and managerial employees cannot be less than 12 months.   If a worker continues working after the expiry of fixed period, the rights and obligations remains the same, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, as they were at the expiration of the term. If there is no fixed duration of the partnership, any partner may determine the partnership at any time on giving notice of his intention to all the other partners.

Collective agreement 

A collective agreement shall continue to be binding on employers or employees who were party to the agreement at the time of its commencement and includes resigned members from that trade union or employer association. A collective agreement becomes binding on employers and employees who become members of the parties to the agreement after its commencement.  Collective agreements shall be in writing and signed by the parties.   

# Employment Termination and Severance Pay (Dismissal)

Employee decision

This happens when an employee due to material breach of the contract by the employer decides to resign from his employment.

Employer decision

Under the law there are four grounds that may justify termination of the employment by the employer and these are:

  • Misconduct
  • Incapacity
  • Incompatibility
  • Employer’s operational requirements/retrenchment.

An employer may also terminate an employee due to participation in an illegal strike. Therefore, for an employer to terminate an employee he/she should have a genuine reason falling under the above-mentioned grounds of termination. An employee cannot be fired because an employer does not like them – unless the grounds for this dislike are based on the above-mentioned factors, such as misconduct etc.

Mutual agreement 

Termination of employment by agreement: When the employer and employee agree to bring a contract of employment to an end in accordance with an agreement. For example, if there is a contract for a period of one year and the agreed period expires then the contract will obviously come to an end.

# It is prohibited to dismiss

The following reasons could be considered as those which qualify the employer’s decision on dismissal as not lawful:

  • Discloses information that the employee is entitled or required to disclose to another person under the law.
  • Fails or refuses to do anything that an employer may not lawfully permit or require the employee to do.
  • Exercises any right conferred by agreement the law.
  • Belongs, or belonged, to any trade union; or participates in the lawful activities of a trade union, including a lawful strike.
  • For reasons related to pregnancy
  • Related to disability

# Notice period

If a contract of employment can be terminated on notice, the period of notice for both employer and employee shall not be less than the seven days, if notice is given in the first month of employment; and after that:

  • 4 days, if the employee is employed on a daily or weekly basis.
  • 28 days, if the employee is employed on a monthly basis.

Notice of termination shall be in writing, stating the reasons for termination and the date on which the notice is given.    Instead of giving an employee notice of termination, an employer may pay the employee the remuneration that the employee would  Have received if the employee had worked during the notice period.  Where an employee refuses to work during the notice period, an employer may deduct, from any money due to that employee on termination, the amount that would have been due to the employee if that employee had worked during the notice period.

# Severance payments

”Severance pay” means an amount at least equal to 7 days’ basic wage for each completed year of continuous service with that employer up to a maximum of ten years.  An employer shall pay severance pay on termination of employment if:

  • The employee has completed 12 months’ continuous service with an employer.
  • Subject to the provisions of subsection, the employer terminates the employment.

# Employee Benefits and Contributions

Mandatory benefits required by law to be provided by an employer

  • Paid vacation
  • Paid sick leave
  • Social security
  • Maternity and paternity leave.

# Minimum statutory salary

Minimum wage rates are determined for the following sectors:

  • Health services
  • Agriculture services
  • Trade, industries and commercial services
  • Communication services
  • Mining
  • Private schools services (Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools)
  • Domestic and Hospital Services
  • Private Security Services
  • Energy Services
  • Transport Services
  • Construction Services
  • Fishing and Marine Services

# Probationary period

There is no explicit provision in the Employment and Labor Relations about probation period. However, this act implicitly requires a probationary period of 6 months by saying that a worker with less than 6 months of employment may not bring an unfair termination claim against the employer.

# Overtime

An employer shall not require or permit an employee to work overtime:

  • Except in accordance with an agreement
  • More than 50 overtime hours in any 4-week cycle.

An employer shall pay an employee not less than one and one-half times the employee’s basic wage for any overtime worked.

# Work hours

An employer shall not require or permit an employee to work more than 12 hours in any day. The maximum number of ordinary days or hours that an employee may be permitted or required to work are:

  • 6 days in any week
  • 45 hours in any week
  • 9 hours in any day.

An employer shall give an employee who works continuously for more than five hours a break of at least 60 minutes. An employer shall not be obliged to pay an employee for the period of a break unless the employee is required to work, or to be available for work, during the break.

# Annual Leave

An employer shall grant an employee at least 28 consecutive days’ leave in respect of each leave cycle, and such leave shall be inclusive of any public holiday that may fall within the period of leave.   The number of days referred to in subsection may be reduced by the number of days during the leave cycle which, at the request of the employee, the employer granted that employee paid occasional leave. An employer may determine when the annual leave is to be taken provided that it is taken no later than – 6 months after the end of the leave cycle; or 12 months after the end of the leave cycle if the employee has consented; and the extension is justified by the operational requirements of the employer.  An employer shall pay an employee the remuneration an employee would have been paid had the employee worked during the period of leave before the commencement of the leave.  An employer shall not require or permit an employee to take annual leave in place of any leave to which the employee is entitled.

# Sick Leave

An employee with less than six months’ service shall not be entitled to paid leave.  Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection:

  • An employee employed on a seasonal basis is entitled to paid leave.
  • An employee, with less than six months’ service and who has worked more than once in a year for the same employer, shall be entitled to paid leave if the total period worked for that employer exceeds 6 months in that year.

An employee shall be entitled to sick leave for at least 126 days in any leave cycle.  The sick leave referred to in subsection shall be calculated as follows:

  • The first 63 days shall be paid full wages.
  • The second 63 days shall be paid half wages.

# Parental Leave

Maternity leave 

An employee shall give notice to the employer of her intention to take maternity leave at least 3 months before the expected date of birth and such notice shall be supported by a medical certificate.  An employee may commence maternity leave:

  • At any time from four weeks before the expected date of confinement
  • On an earlier date if a medical practitioner certifies that it is necessary for the employee’s health or that of her unborn child.

No employee shall work within six weeks of the birth of her child, unless a medical practitioner certifies that she is fit to do so.  The employee may resume employment on the same terms and conditions of employment at the end of her maternity leave.   No employer shall require or permit a pregnant employee or an employee who is nursing a child to perform work that is hazardous to her health or the health of her child.

Paternity leave

During any leave cycle, an employee shall be entitled to Paternity and other forms of at least 3 days paid paternity leave if:  The leave is taken within 7 days of the birth of a child.  The employee is the father of the child.

Acumen International can help you fast-track your possibilities of entering and expanding your business in Tanzania by providing you with our Employer of Record services. Our unique mix of PEO/EOR solutions will enable you to jumpstart your global operations almost immediately, cost-effectively and compliantly without any need to set up a legal entity first or afterwards.

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