Read that contract before signing

Read and understand. Signing a contract that you have not taken time to read might turn out problematic in future. PHOTO BY Abubaker Lubowa.

What you need to know:

Read and understand. It is important that you read the terms of your contract and the company’s policies before you commit yourself to the offer.

Twenty three-year Esther Nigiwan learnt the hard way. She was recently summarily sacked from her marketing job for arriving late for work.
According to Nigiwan, she had not been given any warning or subjected to a disciplinary hearing to tell her side of the story.
“I found the decision hasty and unlawful. I had communicated to my supervisor that I would be in office late because of some emergency,” she says, highlighting a common practice that boarders on illegality.
Her contract, she says, clearly stipulated that she ought to have been subjected to disciplinary procedures of the company but she was denied the opportunity.
“I am doing some paper work to sue the company,” she says.
Many employees never bother to understand their contracts and even when they are a victim of an illegality, they have no clue what they should do.
Nigiwan claims she understood her contract well and for that she is taking a decision to remedy the illegality.
As an employee, understanding the contents of and veracity your contract should be a key objective before you put pen to paper.


According to Deborah Maitum, the UAP human resource and administration manager, employees must carefully understand their contracts and the human resource manuals before they can claim to have been treated unjustly.
“If a victim would like to sue for any unlawful act, they are obliged to do so in case they were not given a fair hearing,” she says, but outlines that in companies where there are proper structures, human resource departments have the last word on the employee but any disciplinary measure must be guided by company policies and the law of the land.


However, understanding disciplinary measures and remedies does not work in isolation as, according to Maitum, you must get a grasp of other policies such terms of payment, roles and the structure through which you will be working.
All deductions from your salary, Nigiwan says, must be highlighted in the polices and must be in tandem with the laws. “Ask for your payslips to verify anything that you don’t understand in regard to your salary,” she says.

The law
According to Section 59(e) of the Employment Act: “An employee is entitled, in writing, to the wages they are to receive………and the intervals at which they will be paid, and the deductions or other conditions to which they shall be subject.”


“The Employment Act explicitly details what ought to be included in the contract of service of an employee,” says Patrick Nasinyama, a lawyer at Paul Byaruhanga Advocates.
Therefore, Maitum advises, no matter how big the volume of the contract might appear, read it with specific interest analysing terms, entitlements and the structure regime.
Also, she says, understand the type of the terms of employment because a contract employee will have different terms from the permanent one.

What the law says

Understanding career
Under Section 59 of the Employment Act, according to Patrick Nasinyama, a lawyer at Paul Byaruhanga Advocates, details of work conditions and entitlements, among others of an employee are explicitly explained and provides for remedies in case of a dispute.


The contract, he says, must include job title and job description, wages and deductions, working hours and length of notice required for lawful termination of the contract by both parties.
“Section 60(a) of the same Act stipulates that incase of any dispute between the employee and employer, the employment contract can serve as evidence in the search for justice,” he says.

Not fair
Understand the contract. It is not fair to claim you have been treated unfairly if you never at any moment tried to understand your contract and the terms of employment.