How do you end employment in The Gambia?

An employee with more than six years' service gives at least one month's notice, whatever the pay period. The Act's text is not consistent on notice owed to an employee with six years or more: one paragraph says one month for fortnightly and weekly pay, another says two months. We confirm that rule before we quote.

The Act is also not consistent on a fixed-term contract: one section says it ends on its date without notice, and another states a 14-day minimum. A shorter notice period than the Act sets is void, and either party can accept payment in place of notice. During probation, no notice is needed.

Reasons the Act says are not valid include these:

• pregnancy or maternity leave, or race, sex, religion, political opinion or ethnic origin;
• absence of less than two weeks because of sickness or injury;
• HIV status, or any other non-communicable disease;
• joining or refusing to join a trade union, or filing a complaint against the employer.

An employer can dismiss without notice for serious misconduct, habitual neglect of duties, lack of a skill the employee claimed or a misrepresentation the contract was based on. The employee can be accompanied at the hearing. A written statement of the reason should be given at the time of dismissal, and if the employer gives no reason the dismissal is conclusively presumed unfair.

After five years of service the severance is ten months of basic pay, which is our arithmetic from the formula. Section 104(6) of the Labour Act sets severance at two months' basic pay for each year served where a contract is terminated in the way the subsection describes. The wording is loose about which terminations that covers, so our experts read it case by case before any figure goes into an offer. If the employee dies before being paid, it goes to the estate.

The written information you give covers these points:

• the circumstances that make dismissal necessary;
• why you rejected any alternative, including re-deployment or re-training;
• any reasonable probability that some employees will be re-employed within twelve months.

Section 93 gives six months' notice and section 141(8) gives a redundancy allowance of six months' regular remuneration, even where the employer has followed the steps. An employer of five or fewer employees in all its establishments is exempt from the section 141 steps, but we read the notice and allowance rules for each case. An employer can instead agree a retainer for up to six months, which is 10% of basic pay unless another rate is fixed.

• Leave pay. Pay for annual leave accumulated but not taken, at not less than the normal rate.
• Notice pay. If you pay money instead of notice, the remuneration and benefits the employee would have received over the notice period.
• Severance. Where section 104(6) applies, two months' basic pay for each year served.
• Certificate. A certificate of termination, if the employee asks, with the length of service and the job held.
• Foreign contracts. The cost of the journey and repatriation for the employee and accompanying family.

The Tribunal first considers reinstatement or re-engagement, with compensation that it considers just and equitable. It can award compensation instead, having regard to the employee's loss, the opportunities for other work and the value of lost statutory rights, including pension rights.

Failing to explain the reason and hear the employee raises a presumption that the employer did not act with justice and equity. Plan the reasons and the record before you end a contract.

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