Why don’t companies honour job contracts?

What is the basis of contracts if companies never honour them? An employee’s contract says one thing and the terms on the ground are completely different. For instance, they work overtime, are given extra loads, all without extra pay. John

Dear John,
Disregard of employee contracts is a very common practice in Uganda. This is attributed to three main sources; most get overwhelmed by the legalese embedded in contracts moreover in a society characterised with a poor reading culture. Most times they issue contracts even without reading and understanding the finer details. Secondly, many people are too naive or ignorant of their rights. Some are subservient in upbringing and find difficulty defending what they believe is the right thing to do.
Some employees think an employer is doing them a favour by giving them a job. The other common scenario is that employers tend to confuse employment contracts with policies. Contracts specifically set out the obligations and rights of both employer and employee.
The employer should only include provisions that they are confident they want to bind their employees and themselves. For rules that they want to impose but do not want to give them the legal enforceability, then they should create non-contractual policies and procedures for employees to follow. This is the only solution that gives them the latitude they need to respond when the relationship breaks down.
Violation of employment laws or an employment contract can be very costly to a company.

Solomon Muhiirwa
Human Resource Consultant
[email protected]