Employment Contracts in Tanzania: The Three Forms Section 14 Allows

This page is the employment contract and workplace policy operating file: which engagement a role may lawfully take, what the paper must say, and the policies an arbitrator measures you against. It is not a staff handbook, nor a substitute for an advocate on a contested exit.

• The stay, not the right to work: residence permits in Tanzania
• Visa against work permission: business visa vs residence status
• Registering the premises: OSHA registration

As at 14 September 2026. This file rests on Cap. 366, the Labour Institutions Act Cap. 300 and the Code of Good Practice; wage orders and payroll rates move by Government Notice and Finance Act, so confirm the live schedule on tra.go.tz.

Which of the three contracts section 14 lets you sign

The Labour Commissioner administers the regime; the standards themselves sit in Cap. 366. Section 14(1) permits three forms and no fourth: an unspecified period; a specified period, reserved to professionals and the managerial cadre; and a specific task. Casual, temporary or consultant written over what is in substance employment is read back into one of those three at the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration.

The cadre restriction is the limb that costs money. A one-year paper handed to a driver or a storekeeper is not a fixed-term engagement: the arbitrator reads unspecified duration, and the expiry is simply an unexplained dismissal.

Cap. 366 stops at the channel. An employer in Unguja or Pemba drafts to the islands' 2005 labour statutes, litigates in the Zanzibar Industrial Court, and pays ZSSF rather than NSSF. Income tax is a Union matter, so PAYE stays with TRA on both sides.

Written particulars are what an arbitrator reads first

Section 15 obliges the employer to supply written particulars when the employee starts: employer's name and address, place of recruitment, job description, date of commencement, form and duration of the engagement, place of work, hours, remuneration and how it is calculated. Where the employee cannot read, they are explained orally.

That paper is kept five years after the relationship ends. Where a party disputes a term, section 15 puts the burden of proving or disproving it on the employer, so an undocumented file is lost before evidence is heard. A contract may improve on the statute and never cut beneath it: a clause waiving annual leave, or fixing severance below section 42, is void to that extent.

Where the role is closed to a non-citizen before it is offered

A non-citizen cannot join a Tanzanian payroll on the strength of a signature. The Non-Citizens (Employment Regulation) Act No. 1 of 2015 requires a work permit from the Labour Commissioner (Class A for an investor, Class B and C for professionals engaged by a company, Class D for registered religious and charitable bodies), and the application carries a succession plan naming the Tanzanian understudy.

The permit is half the answer; a residence permit from the Immigration Department under the Immigration Act Cap. 54 is the other, at a separate desk. Where the activity falls on the list reserved for citizens under GN No. 487A of 2025, no drafting cures it. Match the appointment term to the permit term, or the second year is unlawful.

Ending an engagement: notice, severance and the certificate

Notice under section 41 runs at seven days for daily and weekly-paid staff, twenty-eight for the monthly-paid. A contract may lengthen them, never shorten them; payment in lieu is the arithmetic equivalent.

Section 37 asks two things at once: a fair reason (misconduct, capacity, compatibility, or operational requirements), and a fair procedure. GN No. 42 of 2007, the Code of Good Practice, sets that procedure: a charge the employee can answer, a hearing, representation by a colleague or union official, and a decision with reasons. Retrenchment under section 38 adds consultation on alternatives, selection criteria and timing before notice issues.

Severance under section 42 is seven days' basic wage for each completed year of service, capped at ten years, due once the employee has completed twelve months. Section 44 closes the file: wages to the final day, accrued leave, notice pay, transport to the place of recruitment, and a certificate of service.

A contested exit goes to the CMA on Form CMA F1: thirty days from termination for unfair dismissal, sixty for other disputes, under rules made under Cap. 300. The arbitrator may order reinstatement, re-engagement, or compensation of not less than twelve months' remuneration under section 40; revision lies to the Labour Division of the High Court within six weeks.

The floor beneath every contract: hours, rest and leave

Section 19 fixes the ordinary week at six days, forty-five hours, nine hours in a day; overtime is capped at fifty hours in a four-week cycle and paid at one and a half times basic wage, with Sunday and public-holiday duty at twice. Section 20 adds a night allowance of at least five per cent.

Annual leave is twenty-eight consecutive days in each twelve-month cycle under section 31, public holidays included, and is to be taken rather than bought out. Section 32 gives 126 days of sick leave against a medical certificate, the first sixty-three at full basic wage and the second sixty-three at half. Section 33 gives eighty-four days of paid maternity leave, one hundred for a multiple birth; section 34 gives the father three paid days.

What signing turns on at the payroll desk

Four registrations follow the first day. PAYE is withheld and remitted to TRA within seven days after the month ends, under the Income Tax Act Cap. 332. Social security under the National Social Security Fund Act Cap. 50 runs at twenty per cent of the wage, the employer carrying at least half; a Zanzibar entity pays ZSSF. Skills and Development Levy is 3.5% of gross emoluments under the Vocational Education and Training Act Cap. 82, collected by TRA above the headcount threshold in that Act. Workers' compensation contributions go to the fund under Cap. 263 at the rate published for your risk class.

Name the basic wage in the particulars and itemise allowances beside it: severance under section 42 is measured on basic wage alone, and a housing allowance folded into one gross figure inflates every exit.

The workplace policies the law obliges you to hold

Section 7 of Cap. 366 requires an employer to promote equal opportunity and remove discrimination from any employment policy, on closed grounds that include sex, pregnancy, marital status, disability, HIV status, religion, tribe and age. Harassment is a species of discrimination, so a written policy with a named reporting route is the only defence.

The disciplinary code and grievance procedure come from GN No. 42 of 2007, not because an employee sues on it, but because it measures the employer's conduct. Section 9 of the HIV and AIDS (Prevention and Control) Act No. 28 of 2008 obliges a workplace programme, and the Occupational Health and Safety Act No. 5 of 2003 registers premises with OSHA before operations begin. Templates lifted from Kenya cite the wrong instruments; a signed acknowledgement is what makes a code enforceable.

The sequence a clean hire follows

1. Fix the form before the offer: choose among the three limbs, and test the grade before an end date is typed.
2. Screen the role for citizenship: reserved activity, permit class, then residence status.
3. Issue the particulars on day one: signed in duplicate, one copy handed over and receipted.
4. Register the person: TIN and National Identification number, pension membership, compensation-fund return.
5. Register the premises: OSHA before the first shift, statutory notices posted where staff read them.
6. Hand over the policies: disciplinary code, grievance route, harassment policy and HIV programme, against signature.
7. Open the personnel folder: diary the probation review before month six, and permit expiry.

What the personnel folder must contain

Offer letter and signed particulars; job description; certified certificates and, for regulated work, registration with the licensing body: NBAA, the Engineers Registration Board or the Medical Council; TIN and National Identification number; fund membership forms; for a non-citizen, both permits and the succession plan; signed acknowledgement of the code; attendance and overtime records; the leave register; payslips.

On exit, add the notice or hearing record, the final-pay computation, the certificate of service and proof of payment. That pack is what an arbitrator asks for first.

Worked example: final pay on a retrenchment

A monthly-paid supervisor on a basic wage of TZS 1,800,000 has six years and four months of continuous service and fourteen days of leave untaken. The position is made redundant under section 38, with payment in lieu.

• Notice: twenty-eight days, paid as one month: TZS 1,800,000.
• Severance: seven days for each of six completed years is forty-two days; at a daily basic wage of TZS 60,000 (1,800,000 ÷ 30), TZS 2,520,000. The odd four months earn nothing, since only whole years count.
• Accrued leave: fourteen days × TZS 60,000 = TZS 840,000.
• Gross final payment: TZS 5,160,000, before tax and repatriation transport.

The divisor is the live argument: no provision says how a monthly wage becomes a daily one. Employers use thirty, employees argue for working days, and the tribunal applies what the parties wrote. Illustrative arithmetic, not a quotation.

Where this file stalls

• A junior grade put on a one-year paper, then told it expired: a dismissal with no reason on record.
• A fourth consecutive renewal on identical terms: refusing the fifth is itself a termination under section 36(a)(iii).
• No particulars issued, so every term the claimant alleges must be disproved by the company.
• Severance computed on gross pay including allowances, or paid beyond the ten-year cap and then chased.
• A foreign manager left on the payroll while the renewal sits unsigned at the Labour Commissioner.

Mandate-holders this file does not replace

The Labour Commissioner owns work permits and inspection. The CMA owns mediation and arbitration. TRA owns PAYE and the levy on emoluments; the pension and compensation funds own their returns; OSHA owns the premises; the Zanzibar Labour Commission owns everything east of the channel. Where an exit is contested, the hand-off is to an advocate. Zatra prepares, structures and coordinates; it does not practise law, audit, or issue approvals, and no tribunal outcome is guaranteed.

What to confirm before you act

• The grade of the role, tested against section 14(1)(b), before a fixed end date is written.
• The sectoral wage order in force for your industry, made under Cap. 300.
• Permit class, validity and the current fee, with the Labour Commissioner.
• The live PAYE table and the training-levy headcount, with TRA.
• Whether the entity is a Mainland or an island employer: statute, fund and forum all change.

The legislation is the floor. A contract is only what you can defend above it.