The coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic is unfortunately now in Uganda. The raft of measures by the World Health Organization (WHO), and governments across the world (including our own) to contain the spread of the virus have resulted in an unprecedented disruption of business and day-to-day life.
We are the first full service law firm in Uganda to set up a fully specialized employment law practice.
We have an experienced team of professionals working exclusively on employment and benefits matters and our practice is retained by a number of multinational organizations, local corporate entities and international non-profit organisations. We advise on all contentious and non-contentious aspects of employment law and have been instrumental in guiding clients through the difficult transition from the employment-at-will to the termination-for-just-reasons legal regime imposed by the Employment Act 2006.
We provide advice on formulation, review and update of human resource policy manuals to ensure compliance with current labor laws and best practices We also conduct annual training sessions to ensure effective compliance; support and advise on routine employment issues such as terms of engagement, disciplinary matters and grievance handling; undertake engagements with relevant stakeholders and provide advice on labor relations and occupational health and safety.
Experience has included advising:
- African Field Epidemiology Network in landmark appellate proceedings which clarified the jurisdictional basis of the Industrial Court and the scope of statutory and common law remedies that can be awarded in an unfair dismissal claim.
- dfcu Bank for its acquisition of the employment portfolio of Crane Bank as part of the overall purchase of the assets and liabilities of Crane Bank - aspects advised on include transfer of undertaking, collective termination (and accompanying regulatory reporting obligations), work authorisation implications and the integration of retained employees into existing contractual frameworks.
- Uganda National Roads Authority on a major restructuring that involved the collective termination of most of its employees and conducting a comprehensive labor law audit and review of all organizational manuals, policies and procedures relating to human resources management at the authority.
- Total E&P and Tullow Operations on a significant corporate restructuring exercise that entailed the migration of its operations from exploration and appraisal to development and production and resulted into the laying off of affected employees.
- East African Development Bank on the establishment of an internal quasi-judicial mechanism to address staff grievances in light of its diplomatic immunity status under its formative treaty.
- A reproductive health organization on the corporate reorganization of its operational entities in Uganda resulting into a merger of operations into one entity, including the migration of employees into one single entity and a number of redundancies
- Vivo Energy in conducting a full-scale labor law compliance audit.
- An international anti-poverty charity on its scheduled temporary closure and subsequent staff restructuring and strategic asset disposal.
- Band 1 – General Business Law (Chambers & Partners 2019)