THE head of the legal department at CESTRAR the umbrella body of trade unions, has said that most of the complaints they receive are related to employers denying benefits to employees whose contracts have been terminated prematurely.

During an interview yesterday, Francois Butera attributed this to lack of knowledge and respect for the Labour Code by the Rwandan society, especially employers.

"We have arbitrated a number of disputes between employers and employees, but what is evident is that many people are ignorant of labour law while some deliberately ignore its provisions,” Butera said.

He added that in all cases recorded by his department, employees whose rights to dismissal allowance was denied, account for 80 percent, which he said is by far higher compared to other complaints.

It is followed by illegal dismissal or termination of employee’s contract which covers between 10-15% of the complaints filed.

Other complaints include overtime remuneration, refusal to provide worker’s certificate and breach of contracts where some workers complain of earning varying salaries yet are on the same level.

He also added that some companies like Roko Construction, Top Security and Garsec security companies have turned down CESTRAR’s offer to arbitrate between them and their employees.

"These are typical examples of those who just ignore the labour law,” he added.

Until the 18th of this month, 118 complaints had been filed from both public and private institutions this year, compared to 257 cases that were filed last year.

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