Employment
Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act with statutory redundancy
Employment is regulated by the Labour Act, the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act. Dismissal requires a fair reason and procedure, and redundancy attracts severance calculated by bands of service. Trade-union recognition is governed by the Trade Union Recognition Act with a certifying board.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, enforced by the Ministry of Labour and the courts
- Deadline — Notice: one to six weeks depending on length of service
- Deadline — Severance: one week per year for the first five years, rising thereafter
- Deadline — Unfair dismissal claim: within the time set under the 1997 Act
Governing law
- Labour ActCap 98:01
- Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act 1997
- Trade Union Recognition Act 1997
In practice
The 1997 Act is the operative instrument for dismissal disputes and sets out both the fair-reason requirement and a graduated severance formula, so length of service drives cost directly. The Local Content Act's Guyanese-employment requirements now interact with ordinary labour law in the petroleum sector, obliging operators to meet national-workforce percentages by category.