Employment contracts and probation: who the Labour Law covers, fixed-term and indefinite contracts, the 17 core elements of a written contract, written contracts for foreign staff, probation, variation, suspension and discipline

The Labour Law and who it covers

Private-sector employment in Rwanda is governed by Law N° 66/2018 of 30/08/2018 regulating labour in Rwanda (the Labour Law), published in the Official Gazette on 6 September 2018, which repealed the 2009 labour law. It was amended by Law N° 027/2023 of 18/05/2023, which moved the rules on working hours into a Ministerial Order, added protection against dismissal for pregnancy and recast maternity leave. Much of the detail sits in Orders of the Minister of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA): the core elements of a written contract are in Ministerial Order N° 007/19.20 of 17/03/2020, working hours in Ministerial Order N° 01/MIFOTRA/23 of 13/06/2023, and leave, foreign employment and occupational safety in Ministerial Order N° 02/MIFOTRA/23 of 01/08/2023.

Under Article 2 the Labour Law applies to employment relations under an employment contract in the private sector, to public-service staff employed on contract unless their own statutes provide otherwise, to apprentices and interns, to self-employed persons for occupational health and safety, and to informal-sector workers for the rights it lists. Article 3(2) defines an employment contract as an agreement under which the employee undertakes to work under the authority of the employer in return for remuneration. There is no separate statutory test for independent contractors, so the label the parties use matters less than the reality of control and pay. A consultant who works set hours under a manager's instructions for a monthly fee is likely to be treated as an employee, with the Pay As You Earn (PAYE), Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) and labour-law consequences that follow; the tax side is covered in Personal income tax, PAYE and expatriates.

Article 11 allows an employee to hold contracts with more than one employer, provided they do not compromise one another. Article 12 applies the Labour Law to foreign employees unless a treaty ratified by Rwanda provides otherwise; the right to work itself is a matter for the immigration laws and the Directorate General of Immigration and Emigration (DGIE), explained in Work permits and residence permits.

Fixed-term or indefinite: the only two forms

Article 11 of the Labour Law states that an employment contract can be for a fixed term or indefinite. There is no third statutory category: a contract to complete a defined task is, in law, a fixed-term contract whose term is set by reference to the task, and it should state an end date or an objectively identifiable end event. The Be Rwanda Wise FAQ on contract contents has referred to task-based contracts as a separate category; that is not correct under the current Law.

A fixed-term contract ends automatically when its term expires (Article 28). It may end earlier by mutual consent, and a party who wishes to end it early on its own initiative must have legitimate reasons. Where the term expires and the employee continues to work without a written renewal, Article 28 provides that the employee is paid for the days actually worked, which leaves both sides uncertain about notice, leave and terminal benefits; renew in writing before expiry. The Labour Law itself sets no maximum length for a fixed-term contract and no limit on the number of renewals, but repeated short renewals for a permanent role invite the argument that the real relationship is indefinite and that non-renewal is a dismissal requiring legitimate reasons.

An indefinite contract may be terminated only for legitimate reasons and with the notice and procedure that the Labour Law requires (Articles 24 to 27). Notice periods, gross misconduct, terminal benefits and damages for unfair dismissal are in Termination, severance and redundancy.

Written or unwritten, and in what language

A Rwandan employment contract may be written or unwritten, and its existence may be proved by any means (Article 11). But an unwritten contract may not exceed 90 consecutive days, so any engagement intended to last longer must be put in writing. A foreign employee working in Rwanda must always be given a written contract (Article 12), and DGIE will in any event require the signed contract with the permit application. Article 39 lists among the employer's main duties providing the employee with an employment contract and its copy, paying the agreed salary on time, affiliating the employee to the social security body and notifying the labour inspector of any work-related accident or death.

Article 4 of Ministerial Order N° 007/19.20 requires the contract to be drafted in one of the official languages that both the employee and the employer understand. If they do not share a language, the contract is drafted in two languages, one understood by each. A foreign-owned company whose managers work in English and whose staff work in Kinyarwanda should therefore expect to issue bilingual contracts, and should state which version prevails only to the extent that doing so does not deprive the employee of a text he or she understands.

Statutory minimums override less favourable contract terms: an employment contract, the rules of procedure of the enterprise and any collective agreement may improve on the Labour Law but not reduce its protections. Contracts concluded before the Labour Law came into force in 2018 remained valid, but Article 123 required any clause contrary to it to be brought into conformity within twelve months; an old group template that was never updated may still carry clauses the Law has overridden.

Probation

Article 13 of the Labour Law caps the probation period at three months. After a written evaluation of the employee's performance, notified to the employee, the employer may for valid reasons related to the nature of the work, the employee's performance or conduct decide that the employee retakes probation for a further period of no more than three months. The maximum total is therefore six months, and only where the extension rests on a documented, notified evaluation. A contract clause providing for a six-month probation from the outset does not satisfy Article 13.

If probation is conclusive, the employer confirms the employment in writing immediately. If the written, notified evaluation shows that the employee is not competent, the employer may terminate the contract without notice, paying only the salary for the work done; no terminal benefits are due. The safeguard is procedural: without a written evaluation notified to the employee, a termination during probation is exposed to challenge as an unfair dismissal. Article 24 adds that no notice can be given during probation, so an employer cannot serve ordinary notice to run out in the probation period.

An employee re-employed by the same employer for the same job position is not subject to probation again. Annual leave starts to accrue from the first day, and Article 46 counts the probation period towards the twelve months of service after which a new recruit may take annual leave (Working hours, leave and public holidays).

Changing the contract: variation, transfer and change of ownership

Either party may propose a change to the contract, but a variation takes effect only by mutual consent (Article 14). Article 17 requires the employee to occupy the position applied for, but allows the employer, in the enterprise's interests, to move the employee to a different position at the same level without reducing salary or benefits; a move to a lower level or lower pay needs the employee's consent. A contract cannot be transferred to another employer without the employee's consent (Article 16), which matters for intra-group moves and for outsourcing.

Where the employer's legal status changes, for example on a merger, a conversion of a branch into a subsidiary or a sale of the business, Article 15 provides that employment contracts in progress remain valid between the new employer and the existing employees, and may be terminated only under the conditions of the Labour Law. A buyer of a Rwandan business therefore inherits its workforce and their accrued service; see Acquiring a Rwandan company. Where an employer subcontracts part of its work, Article 23 requires the subcontract to guarantee payment of the subcontractor's employees' salaries and social security contributions.

Suspension and discipline

Article 18 lists the grounds on which a contract is suspended rather than terminated: a lawful strike or lockout; a disciplinary lay-off of up to eight working days; imprisonment or provisional detention of the employee for no more than six months; suspension of the enterprise's activities for economic or technical difficulties or for force majeure; and suspension for an administrative investigation. The contract, the rules of procedure and a collective agreement may add other grounds.

During an administrative investigation that could lead to a sanction, the employer may suspend the employee in writing for no more than 30 days without pay, but the salary is calculated and retained; if the employee's innocence is established, the employer reinstates the employee and pays the retained salary (Article 20). For economic or technical reasons, an employee may be laid off for no more than 90 days in total in any one year; when that period expires the employee is considered dismissed and receives terminal benefits (Article 21).

Article 42 fixes the scale of disciplinary sanctions, subject to more favourable provisions in a collective agreement, the rules of procedure or the contract: an oral warning, a written reprimand, temporary suspension without pay for no more than eight working days, and dismissal. An employer cannot invent other sanctions, such as fines or demotion, by contract. Acts amounting to gross misconduct are listed in a Ministerial Order and are covered in Termination, severance and redundancy; the rules of procedure every enterprise with five or more employees must adopt are in Workplace rules, unions and labour disputes.

Apprentices, interns and secondees

The Labour Law recognises two training contracts. An apprenticeship contract is one under which the head of an enterprise teaches a person professional skills, or arranges for others to do so, for an agreed fixed period and issues an apprenticeship certificate (Article 35). An internship contract lets a person gain work experience to apply skills acquired in formal education (Article 36). Article 37 leaves their nature to a Ministerial Order. An internship that is in substance a junior job, with output expected and no training content, risks being treated as an employment contract.

Foreign staff seconded by a group company remain subject to the Labour Law while they work in Rwanda, need a permit, and must have a written contract with the capacity-building duties that the 2023 Order on foreign employment requires. For pension purposes, a secondment of no more than twelve months leaves the employee in the home scheme under Article 4 of Law N° 05/2015 of 30/03/2015 governing the organisation of pension schemes, subject to any treaty; longer secondments bring the employee into RSSB (Social security: RSSB contributions).

Issuing a compliant contract to a new hire

1. Choose the formDecide between a fixed-term and an indefinite contract. Anything expected to last more than 90 consecutive days, and any contract with a foreign employee, must be in writing (Articles 11 and 12).
2. Draft the 17 core elementsCover every element in Article 2 of Ministerial Order N° 007/19.20, plus the four extra elements in Article 3 if the employee will work abroad. Align hours, overtime and pay with the 2023 working-hours Order.
3. Set probation correctlyProvide for no more than three months, with a written evaluation before it ends; an extension of up to three months must follow a written evaluation notified to the employee.
4. Choose the languageDraft in an official language both parties understand, or in two languages if they do not share one (Article 4 of the Order).
5. Sign and hand over a copyGive the employee the signed contract and a copy (Article 39) and keep the original on the personnel file.
6. Register the employeeRegister the employee with RSSB within seven working days of hiring and include the employee in the next PAYE declaration to the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA).
7. Foreign hires: permit firstObtain the work or residence permit from DGIE before the employee starts work; the application is due within 15 working days of entry or of signing the contract in Rwanda.