Work Contracts: 3 Key Things Employees Should Never Forget

By Mark Namaswa,
If you walked in shoes of one Felix Juma, you would know what it means to pay attention to your contractual terms. His work history goes back to his third year in campus when he was employed by a local bank as a marketer. He was later ‘poached’ by three other banks and left each one without clearing.

When he was recently offered confirmation on permanent terms by his current employer, a bank he’s worked for three years, the HR asked for recommendation letters from a previous employer.

What Felix clearly knows he breached three previous job contracts and any report from them will come negative. His career goal for a permanent job is under threat for disregarding contractual terms.

Before signing on or quitting, here’s what job seekers should know about contracts.

1. What types of contracts mean:

According to Caroline Mwangi, a HR Officer with Crown Beverages, there are basically two types of contracts: open ended contracts and closed contracts.

“The open-ended ones are becoming more popular with many employers because any party to the contract can leave at any given period provided the separation s lawful,” she says. “In most cases, you can opt out of the contract for example with one month’s notice in lieu of payment or any other agreed terms you had laid down.”

Closed contracts, she points out, are used mostly by NGOs and people whose employment based on the completion of projects. Government performance contracts that are also gaining momentum belong to this group.

“They tend to be advantageous to companies that face high staff turnover since it is much easier and cheaper to let go of employees without having to pay them severance packages and engage in a lot of disputes,” says Ms. Mwangi.  “Employees should be particularly careful with closed contracts; they tend to have clauses that if not well read, can catch you unawares,” she cautions.

2. Contract Expiry time:
“It is good advice to always check and be sure of the start date and the date of expiry of your contract. In the case of open-ended contracts, you can leave as long as you give notice but remember,” says Ms. Mwangi, “there are other employers who might take you to task to pay them in case you decided to leave without giving adequate notice—especially for closed contracts.”

As Charity Ndegwa, Human Resource Manager – Pegamon Group says; “It is important to end well with the employers because even if you land another job but didn’t clear well with your past employer, somewhere along the line, the end of the probation period comes and the employer contacts your past employer. If you didn’t part ways well, there’s a problem.”

Ms. Ndegwa adds that knowing when your contract expires also helps you to tell whether it is renewable or not and make arrangements in advance for the next job.

3. Benefits and Entitlements:
“Benefits range from company to company depending on how much they can offer their employees,” says Ms. Mwangi. “Some of these include ‘tools of trade’ that aid in the course of your work like telephones, airtime, laptops or even mobile phones.

Unless these benefits are offered across the entire company workforce, in which case they become entitlements, they should be outlined in the employment contracts.”

She explains that companies offer benefits as a method of getting them to feel a sense of entitlement in their workplace.

“As a keen employee, one should always make sure that all benefits offered by the company are put down in writing,” she advises. “Having written proof somewhere is a sure way of safeguarding your interests should the company decide to backtrack on its promises.”