According to the Employment and Labor Relations Act, the term night is the period between 20:00 pm and 06:00 a.m. (of the following day). This is provided under section 20 (1) of the Employment and Labour Relation Act (CAP 366 R.E 2019) which provides that;
“In this section, “night” means the hours after twenty hours and before six hours.”
Therefore, the night shift means work done in the period after 20:00 pm and before 6:00 am. To be eligible to do the night work there must be a written contract or policy between the employee and employer which will state that the employee will work at night. However, the law (Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2019 – section 20 {2}) prohibits some group from undertaking night work. These groups include:- Children under 18 years of age, an employee who is medically certified as unfit to do the night work, a pregnant employee two months before the expected date of confinement, a pregnant woman a bit earlier than two months before the expected date of confinement if medically certified as no longer fit to work at night, a mother for two months after the date of birth, a mother if a medical certificate is produced that she is not yet fit to perform night work or that the baby’s health does not permit the employee to work the night shift.
In Tanzanian labor law context, if an employee works at night, he/she must be compensated at least 5% of that employee’s basic wage for each hour worked at night. If the hours worked are overtime hours, the 5% shall be calculated on the employee’s overtime rate. This is provided under section 20 (4) of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2019 which provides that;
“An employer shall pay an employee at least 5% of that employee’s basic wage for each hour worked at night and if the hours worked are overtime hours, 5% shall be calculated on the employee’s overtime rate”
It should be noted that any employee who works during the night hours is entitled to a night allowance as compensation in addition to the employee’s basic wage/salary.