Employee benefitsin Somalia

A national health-insurance authority framework provides for membership rules and contributions to be set by the authority. Its financing includes government allocations, member payments and other authorised funds. The framework protects members’ information, complaint and privacy rights. These provisions establish the institutional framework; they do not promise automatic enrolment or uniform practical access to treatment.

An employer is responsible for employee healthcare where the employment contract or employer policy provides it. Employees with disabilities must receive appropriate healthcare at work. The statutory duties include specified exclusions for unauthorised absence, deliberate self-injury and treatment supplied free through the state or a legally established insurance arrangement.

A redundancy requires advance notification to the relevant labour officer and the union, or to the employee directly where there is no union membership. The Labour Code provides one month’s notice or a month’s salary in lieu, accrued leave settlement and compensation equal to one final monthly salary for each service year. The article’s redundancy provisions exclude redundancy caused by insolvency or bankruptcy.

Employees receive 30 working days of annual leave with full remuneration after one complete year of continuous service. The employer sets the dates after consulting employees or their representatives and gives at least seven days’ advance notice. Leave blocks taken separately must contain at least six consecutive working days. Notice of termination cannot run within annual leave, and accrued leave is settled on exit. On termination, proportional leave includes the final month when the employee worked more than fifteen days in that month.

After probation, an employee who becomes ill must obtain an appropriate medical certificate and notify the employer as soon as possible. The Labour Code specifies full contractual salary for sickness lasting three to seven working days, 75% for eight to fourteen working days, and 50% for a thirty-working-day sickness period. Absence beyond thirty working days follows the parties’ agreement. Probationary sickness follows the employment agreement.

Employees receive three to seven working days of special leave on full salary for marriage. Paid leave for Hajj or Umrah, the Muslim pilgrimages to Mecca, lasts for the period of the pilgrimage rites and requires the relevant pilgrimage visa. Employers may grant further discretionary personal leave.

Zamzam Foundation’s July 2019 employee policy provides up to two months of fully paid sick leave in a year for severe illness or accident after probation, followed by up to two months of unpaid leave. A doctor’s certificate is required for an absence longer than one day, and employees notify their manager before 09:00 on the first day. This is a dated employer policy, subject to current statutory rights.

For the first year after giving birth, a breastfeeding employee receives two breaks each day, each lasting one hour. The breaks count as working time with ordinary remuneration.

An eligible employee receives fourteen weeks of maternity leave at full salary, including at least six weeks before birth, after six months of continuous service. A medical certificate must confirm the expected birth date. Written notice is required seven working days before leave, or within a reasonable earlier or later period in the circumstances. Annual leave remains separate, and the employee may return to her previous job after maternity leave.

A male employee receives two weeks of leave at full salary when he supplies proof that his wife has given birth.

Zamzam Foundation’s July 2019 employee policy provides sixteen weeks of maternity leave on full pay, including four weeks before birth. Employees give four weeks’ notice with a medical certificate. This is a dated humanitarian-employer example; current statutory rights take precedence.

Employees receive full remuneration for statutory public holidays. Work performed on a public holiday attracts at least a 50% hourly basic-wage supplement. The standing list includes Somali Language Writing Day on 21 January, Labour Day on 1 May, Independence Day on 26 June, Union Day on 1 July, two working days for Eid al-Fitr, three working days for Eid al-Adha and the Prophet’s Birthday on 12 Rabi al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Government may approve additional gazetted holidays.

Every employee has a statutory right to an Eid bonus. Employees with less than a complete service year receive a proportional entitlement for months worked; a month with more than fifteen days counts as complete. A proportional amount is also due on termination. For piecework or commission earnings, the calculation uses average earnings over the preceding three months or the shorter period worked.

Zamzam Foundation’s July 2019 employee policy pays an Eid al-Fitr bonus of 25% of monthly salary and a separate Eid al-Adha bonus of 25% of monthly salary after probation. These are dated employer-policy amounts; the current statutory Eid bonus entitlement also applies.

Employers must provide sufficient clean drinking water at workplaces and employer-provided accommodation. Food is provided at the employer’s expense when expressly agreed in the employment terms. Where food is required, the employer provides adequate utensils, cooking equipment and a cook.

Employers must provide apprentices with instruction, appropriate remuneration and enough time, without loss of remuneration, for necessary training courses and qualification examinations. An employer with twenty or more employees must engage at least one apprentice.

An employer must provide accommodation when work takes an employee away from the employee’s usual residence. The employer also supplies food or a sufficient food allowance where no shared catering is available, and transport to and from work in another town or district.

Zamzam Foundation’s July 2019 employee policy provides ten working days of study leave a year. Employees request supervisor approval one month in advance and provide evidence of examinations. Additional study leave requires the Director’s approval. The policy is a dated humanitarian-employer example.

Apprenticeships are available from age fifteen through thirty and last no more than three years. Work and instruction together cannot exceed seven hours a day or forty-two hours a week. Apprentices cannot work between 22:00 and 06:00, and must undergo a suitability medical examination before starting.

Wages are paid in legal currency at the workplace on the final day of the pay period. Where there is no existing workplace arrangement, non-permanent employees are paid at intervals no longer than fifteen days and permanent employees at intervals no longer than one month. For piecework lasting more than fifteen days, the worker can request an advance of at least 80% of earned remuneration for each fifteen-working-day period. Commission for a three-month period is payable by the end of the following quarter; profit shares are paid at the start of the next financial year.

The labour minister may determine minimum wages for different employee categories after the statutory wage-setting consultation process.

Ordinary work is limited to eight hours a day and forty-eight hours a week, excluding agreed rest breaks. Overtime cannot exceed two hours a day or twelve hours a week and attracts at least a 50% hourly supplement. Intermittent work and specified caretaking duties have a ten-hour daily or sixty-hour weekly ordinary limit. Employees receive at least twenty-four consecutive hours of weekly rest, normally on Friday.

Probation lasts no more than three months and may be extended by up to three additional months with the employee’s agreement. Either party may end probation with at least seven working days’ notice. An employer that ends probation without notice pays the remuneration for those seven working days. Continued employment without an express end to probation becomes permanent employment.

Termination ordinarily requires written notice of at least ten working days for manual workers or thirty working days for other workers. No notice is required where the contract lasts no more than one month. Either party may pay the remuneration that would have been earned during the notice period instead. An employer must substantiate a valid termination reason and hear the employee’s defence before dismissal for conduct, performance or physical incapacity.

Federal employment standards are set by the Somali Labour Code, Law 36/2024. Somaliland has a separate Private Sector Employees Law, 31/2020. The applicable employment relationship and work location determine the regime used; federal entitlements do not establish identical Somaliland entitlements.