By Esther Adesulu
The Kenyan Parliament is moving to prevent employers from calling or texting their employees during evenings or weekends.
The new bill introduced by the Kenyan Parliament states that defaulters would be fined or jailed.
Titled “Employment (Ammendment)” Bill, 2021, its main purpose is to ensure that employees enjoy the right of having their personal time and privacy respected. It is also targeted at addressing the situation of increased employee burnout.
The Bill was introduced by Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei, according to Tuko.co.ke.
“An employee may disconnect from their employer. An employer may connect an employee during out of work hours if such contact is necessary to address an emergency,” the lawmaker said as quoted by the news website.
If passed into law, employees will be protected against reprehension, punishment or any disciplinary action if they disregard work-related communication during out-of-work hours.
“Where an employer contacts an employee when there is no mutually agreed out of work hours, the employee shall not be obliged to respond and shall disconnect; or may choose to respond, for which the employee may get compensation,” the Bill proposes, according to Tuko.co.ke.
If this law is passed and gets violated by the employer, he has officially committed an offense and is liable, on conviction, to a fine not exceeding kSh 500,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year or to both.
