LABOUR DISPUTES (ARBITRATION AND SETTLEMENT) ACT, 2006.

This Act shall come into force on a date to be appointed by the Minister by statutory instrument; and different days may be appointed for the commencement of different provisions.

2. Interpretation.

In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

"award" means an award made by the Industrial Court in the exercise of its arbitral jurisdiction under section 14;

"board of inquiry" means a board of inquiry appointed under section 25;

"breach" means, in relation to a worker's contract of service, to commit any act or make any omission which amounts to a breach of the contract of service under which the worker is employed;

"collective agreement" means a written agreement relating to terms and conditions of employment concluded between one or more labour unions and one or more employers, or between one or more labour unions and one or more employers' organisations;

"Commissioner" means the Commissioner for Labour;

"contract of service" means any contract, written or oral, where a person agrees to perform work for an employer in return for remuneration, and includes a contract of apprenticeship;

"contract of apprenticeship" means a contract of service where there is—

(a) an obligation on the employer to take all reasonable steps to ensure that an employee is taught, and acquires the knowledge and skills of an industry by means of practical training received in the course of the employee's employment; and

(b) a provision for formal recognition of the fact that an employee has acquired the knowledge and skills intended to be acquired when the employee does so;

"currency point" means the value specified in relation to a currency point in Schedule 1;

"dispute" means a labour dispute;

"employee" means any person who enters into a contract of service or an apprenticeship contract, including without limitation, a person who is employed by or for the Government of Uganda, a local government or a parastatal organisation, but does not include a member of the Uganda Peoples' Defence Forces;

"employer" means a person or group of persons, including a company, a corporation, a public, regional or local authority, a governing body of an unincorporated association, a partnership, parastatal organisation or any other institution or organisation and includes—

(a) the Government of Uganda and a local government, for whom or for which, an employee works or worked, or normally worked or sought to work, under a contract of service;

(b) an heir, successor, assignee and transferor of any person or group of persons for whom an employee works, worked, or normally works;

"employers' organisation" means a group of employers, the principal object of which is, under its constitution, the regulation of relations between employers and employees, between employers and representatives of the employees or between employers and employers for the purpose of representing employers' interests;

"essential service" means any of the services specified in Schedule 2;

"Industrial Court" means the court established by section 7;

"industrial action" means a strike or lockout;

"Judge" means a Judge of the Industrial Court;

"Labour Advisory Board" means the Labour Advisory Board established by the Employment Act 2006;

"labour dispute" means any dispute or difference between an employer or employers and an employee or employees, or a dispute between employees; or between labour unions, connected with employment or nonemployment, terms of employment, the conditions of labour of any person or of the economic and social interests of a worker or workers;

"Labour Officer" means the Commissioner for Labour, and a District Labour Officer, as the case may be and includes an Assistant Labour Officer;

"labour union" means an organisation created by employees, the principal objects of which are, under its constitution, the regulation of the relations between employees and employers or between employees and employees, for the purpose of representing the rights and interests of employees;

"lock-out" means the closing of a place of employment, the suspension of work, or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ or to re-engage any person employed by him or her in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling that person, or to aid another employer in compelling any person employed by that other employer to accept certain terms or conditions of employment which affect the employment;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for labour matters;

"national disaster" means an occurrence inflicting widespread destruction and distress on the life, personal safety or health, industry, property, livelihood or other human interest of the whole or part of the population;

"procedural agreement" means a collective agreement which sets out a dispute resolution procedure;

"recognition agreement" means an agreement by an employer to recognise a labour union for the purposes of collective bargaining or for any other purpose;

"Registrar of Labour Unions" means the Registrar of Labour Unions appointed under the Labour Unions Act, 2006;

"strike" means the cessation of work by a body of persons employed in any trade or industry, acting in combination or concerted refusal, or a refusal under a common understanding of any number of persons who are or have been employed, to continue to work or to accept employment and includes any interruption or slowing down of work by a number of persons employed in any trade or industry or undertaking, including any action commonly known as a "sit-down strike", or a "go slow".

PART II
DISPUTE RESOLUTION AND SETTLEMENT.

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