Employment
The 1997 Labour Act, in an economy where formal employment has largely collapsed
The Labour Act 1997 governs contracts, hours and termination for the formal private sector, with the Civil Service Act covering public employees. Formal employment was already a small minority of work before the 2023 war.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, with labour offices and labour courts under the Ministry of Labour.
Governing law
- Labour Act 1997
- Social Insurance Act 1990
- Trade Union Act 2010
- Civil Service Act 2007
In practice
The 1997 Act provides a conventional framework of written contracts, working-hour limits, annual leave, end-of-service benefits and notice periods, and it applies to establishments above a size threshold, which excludes much of the economy. Trade union law was reorganised in 2010 under state-controlled federation structures, and independent union organisation was suppressed; the professional associations that drove the 2018-19 protests, notably the Sudanese Professionals Association, operated outside that framework precisely because it was closed. Social insurance covers formal workers through the National Social Insurance Fund. Since April 2023 the industrial and service economy around Khartoum has been destroyed or displaced, public salaries have been disrupted, and there is no basis for describing labour administration as functioning, which is why this is marked research.