“A Ministerial Order (of Llabour) determines minimum wage,” reads article 68 of the new labour law.
The current minimum wage was fixed 44 years ago at Rwf100 but workers and trade unions have in the recent years complained about it as not matching with the market rates.
Gaspard Musonera, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Labour, has told IGIHE that the Minister’s Order determining minimum wages is the final stages for publication.
He said the draft bill with soon be tabled before the cabinet, adding that they had to do massive consultations with the concerned organs for the draft as the previous law provided for minimum wage for registered jobs or formal sector only.
The survey by the trade unions published in December 2017 indicated that current market rates call for a minimum wage of Rwf87,285 and Rwf126,260 for rural and urban workers respectively.
Contrary to the previous labour law of 2009 which protected salary for workers in formal sector only, the new law protects salary for all categories of workers including informal sector employees.
It also provides for informal sector employees’ minimum wage and right to a leave, among other rights that were in the previous law like the right to social security, occupational safety, and the right to form trade unions and employers’ associations.
The new law also protects salaries for employees executing public or private tenders by giving powers to the procuring entity to retain the amount equivalent to employees’ salaries, until the successful bidder proves that he/she has paid the employees.
“However, if the payment is not effected by the successful bidder in a period of forty-five (45) days, the procuring entity pays the concerned employees the salaries equivalent to the amount retained,” reads part of article 122.
Contrary to the previous law which prohibited to employ a child even as apprentice before the age of 16, another change is that now a child aged between 13 and 15 years is allowed to perform light works in the context of apprenticeship while the minimum age for admission to employment remains at 16 years.
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