Employee benefitsin Eritrea

Permanent total occupational disablement brings compensation equal to six times annual wages; partial disablement uses the assessed disability percentage of that amount. Occupational death brings heirs five times annual wages, with a minimum of ERN 15,000. Insurance can meet the compensation, but the employer covers any shortfall below the statutory amount. Apprentice compensation uses the wage the apprentice would qualify for after training.

Temporary occupational disability brings monthly employer payments of at least 75% of the last month’s wages for up to twelve months. Service-related additions follow the statutory calculation. Payments stop on recovery certification, permanent-disability compensation or expiry of the statutory period. Refusal of examination, obstruction of recovery or breach of authority instructions can suspend payments; resumption need not include back pay for the suspension.

The employer provides prompt first aid, transport to the nearest health centre, hospital and pharmaceutical treatment, medical and surgical care and necessary prosthetic or orthopaedic appliances for occupational injury. The Medical Board determines when medical services end. A qualifying occupational death also brings reasonable coffin, burial and remains-transport costs, subject to collective terms.

Employers bear no-fault responsibility for qualifying work accidents and occupational disease, subject to statutory exclusions. Coverage includes employer-ordered work away from the workplace and travel in employer-provided commuting vehicles. Employers using fixed machinery or carrying out listed hazardous activities must arrange workers’ compensation insurance. Intentionally self-inflicted injury and specified safety or intoxication cases have special liability rules.

Employers must take occupational health and safety measures, provide protective equipment and instruction, prevent workplace hazards and pay for medical examinations required by law or the competent authority. Employees must use protective devices and follow safety instructions. Disability and sex alone cannot justify unequal employment treatment.

Bisha Mining Share Company’s 2017 Eritrean direct employees had company-funded access to the mine clinic. This historical mining arrangement describes medical services at the worksite.

The Public Sector Pension Fund covers the government and government-owned autonomous institutions or corporations within its legal scope. Its employer definition and contribution rules belong to that public-sector scheme. Ordinary private employment benefits must be assessed separately; the Labour Proclamation’s powers to make social-security regulations and propose a provident fund do not themselves establish a universal private-sector pension contribution.

Severance uses the last wage: two weeks for each of the first five service years, three weeks for each year after the fifth through the tenth, and four weeks for each later year. Service below a year is proportionate at the two-week annual rate. The right is retained regardless of the termination ground, while probation and apprenticeship have separate statutory exceptions.

Recall from annual leave requires unforeseen circumstances. The employee can resume the remaining leave or receive payment for it. The employer meets reasonable recall-related transport, food and lodging costs, and recall travel time counts as normal work.

Paid annual leave starts at fourteen working days for the first service year, then increases by one working day for each additional year, capped at thirty-five working days. Wages for leave are paid when leave starts. Timing normally suits the employee unless otherwise agreed; splitting requires agreement. Postponement is limited to unforeseen shortages or breakdowns. Unused leave is paid on termination, including a proportionate entitlement after probation but before a full year.

After probation, a worker unable to work because of non-occupational illness can take up to six months of sick leave within the twelve-month period beginning on the first sickness day. The employer pays full wages for the first month and half wages for the next two months; the following three months are unpaid. The worker normally notifies the employer the next day and supplies a valid medical certificate, subject to any collective agreement.

Paid time off covers participation in labour-dispute hearings and exercise of civil rights for the time needed. Employee-association leaders receive paid leave for specified dispute, bargaining, meeting and training duties. Advance notice and requested supporting evidence apply. Educational leave and its financial assistance can be defined in collective agreements or work rules.

Paid leave applies when an employee marries or suffers the death of a spouse, parent or other ascendant, child or other descendant, or another relative by blood or marriage up to the second degree. Exceptional and serious personal occurrences separately allow five consecutive unpaid days. Advance notice and supporting evidence can be required.

A pregnant employee receives sixty consecutive days of paid maternity leave, normally beginning the day after delivery. She can instead split the entitlement before and after expected childbirth. Pregnancy-related medical examinations receive paid leave with a medical certificate. Illness following maternity leave can qualify for the separate sickness rules.

Pregnant employees cannot work overtime or between 22:00 and 06:00. A medically certified hazardous assignment must be replaced temporarily with suitable work at the same wage, with return to the former role after maternity leave. Dismissal and dismissal notice are prohibited during maternity leave and pregnancy- or childbirth-related sick leave.

Unless the employment agreement provides otherwise, the employer supplies the tools and raw materials needed for the job. Employees must handle work materials with care. These duties do not establish a fixed cash equipment budget or personal ownership of a device.

Employers must take steps to train employees for their work. Apprenticeships require written terms setting the skill, duration and any pocket money; employers provide the agreed vocational training, safety precautions and completion certificate. Educational leave and financial assistance can be added by collective agreement or work rules.

Temporary work away from the employee’s normal workplace brings agreed transport expenses plus daily food and lodging allowances. Work in government-designated hardship areas can trigger an additional allowance, and the parties can improve daily support. These are business-assignment expenses rather than a general commuting subsidy.

Bisha Mining Share Company supplied food at company expense to its Eritrean direct mine workforce in 2017.

Bisha Mining Share Company funded local commuting and travel to Asmara for its Eritrean direct mine workforce in 2017.

Bisha Mining Share Company’s 2017 Eritrean direct employees received training and advancement opportunities within the mining operation.

Bisha Mining Share Company provided accommodation at company expense for its Eritrean direct mine employees in 2017.

An employee performs agreed paid work under the employer’s direction and control. Eritrea’s Labour Proclamation covers ordinary employment, including government-owned profit-making undertakings and government projects. Civil-service staff, armed and security forces, judges, prosecutors and specified senior decision-making managers follow separate regimes. Eritrean employees of foreign missions and international organisations are covered unless a specific government agreement provides otherwise. Genuine independent services require a separate commercial assessment. Domestic employment and apprenticeships have special statutory provisions.

Employment contracts can be oral or written, but an agreement lasting more than a year must be written. A signed agreement uses two witnesses and records the work, location, start date, duration, remuneration and payment method. More favourable legal and collective terms form part of the contract; inferior terms are void. Continuous work cannot be made temporary merely by using a fixed-term label, and continued work after a fixed term normally renews it indefinitely.

Pay is due at the agreed or habitual place and date. If payday falls on Sunday or a public holiday, payment moves to the preceding working day. Wage deductions require legal, collective, court-ordered or written employee authority and cannot collectively exceed one-fifth of that month’s wages. The employee can inspect and obtain explanations of the gross-pay, deduction and net-pay record.

A worker who is ready to work keeps the right to wages when tools, materials or another cause outside the worker’s responsibility prevents work. Formal suspension of contractual duties follows separate legal grounds and can alter wage and benefit obligations.

Employer and employee agree wages subject to any applicable collective-agreement minimum. Equal starting wages apply to the same type of work. Wage rates and the payment method belong in the employment agreement; time rates, piece rates, job rates and commissions have different calculation rules.

Overtime normally requires employee consent beyond two hours, with exceptions for accidents, urgent work, force majeure and replacement on continuous operations. Daytime overtime from 06:00 to 22:00 pays one-and-a-quarter times the regular hourly wage; night overtime pays one-and-a-half times. Overtime on a weekly rest day pays double, and on a public holiday pays two-and-a-half times. Overtime is paid with wages.

Employees receive at least twenty-four consecutive hours of rest in each seven-day period. Sunday is the usual weekly rest day, while an undertaking operating on Sundays can designate another suitable day. Special occupations can have ministerial rules.

Ordinary hours cannot exceed eight per day and forty-eight per week. Uneven daily distribution may extend an individual day by up to two hours; a shift cannot exceed eight hours. Averaging for irregular operations uses no more than four weeks while preserving the ordinary daily and weekly averages. A relaxation break counts as working time; the meal break can fall outside working time.

Probation cannot exceed ninety consecutive days. Most employment conditions apply during probation, but a worker found unsuitable can be dismissed without notice or severance, and the worker can leave without notice. Continuing work after the period confirms completion. Employer-caused delay in starting the agreed work counts towards probation.

Employment can end by written mutual agreement, expiry of its valid term, death and other statutory grounds. Dismissal for performance, misconduct or operational grounds follows the appropriate conditions and procedure; employers must communicate disciplinary procedures and give clear graded written warnings for infractions. Mutual termination cannot waive statutory employee rights. Specified no-notice grounds and compensation for unjustified dismissal are separate.

Unless the employment contract specifically sets the notice period, employer and employee use seven days for service below one year, fourteen days for one to two years, twenty-one days for more than two through five years and thirty days after five years. An employer can pay wages for the notice period instead. Statutory no-notice grounds apply separately; probation has its own rules.

Protected characteristics, pregnancy, family responsibility, lawful association activity, grievances, national service, certified illness and refusal of dangerous work are not legitimate dismissal grounds. Unjustified dismissal compensation is one day’s last-month pay per service month for service up to two years; above two years it is one month’s pay per service year based on average monthly pay in the final year. Compensation is capped at six months’ pay. Association leaders dismissed for leadership are reinstated.

Benefits paid under the Labour Proclamation’s employment-injury chapter are exempt from tax. This exemption belongs to those occupational-injury services and compensation; ordinary salary and unrelated voluntary benefits follow their own tax treatment.

Ordinary employment and compulsory national-service assignments follow different legal arrangements. The Labour Proclamation treats national service as a ground for temporarily suspending the private contract’s work and, unless otherwise protected, wage and benefit duties; participation is not itself a legitimate dismissal ground. National service can extend in practice beyond its formal term and include civilian assignments. A private employment agreement does not by itself prove discharge, freedom to change jobs or access to the ordinary benefits described here.

A non-national must hold a valid Ministry-issued work permit. The permit records the work type, employment duration and required particulars; the Ministry can cancel, renew or change its conditions. Conditions for foreign workers follow ministerial directives, and entry permission is separate from the employment authorisation.