Leave refers to the amount of hours or days an employee is permitted to be away from work within a year’s period. The Labour Act Chapter 28:01 and partly the Constitution of Zimbabwe deals with various types of leave in Zimbabwe.
Annual/Vacation Leave
In terms of Section 14A of the Labour Act Chapter 28:01 an employee is entitled to 2.5 days per month vacation leave and can only be accrued to a maximum of (90) ninety days paid vacation leave. So what it means is that if the employee continues to work without proceeding on vacation leave say for five years which would translate the leave days to 150 days (30 multiply by 5 years), the employee’s leave days will cease to accrue at 90 days then the counting of leave days will restart at zero.
All Saturdays Sundays and public holidays falling within the period of the vacation leave shall be counted as part of the vacation leave.An employee who becomes ill or is injured during a period of vacation leave may cancel the vacation and apply for sick leave.
Sick leave
In terms of Section 14 of the Labour Act, the employee is entitled to
- 90 days in one calendar year with full pay of sick leave which is supported by registered medical practitioner.
- If the fully paid 90 days are exhausted in one calendar month, the employer shall grant a further period of up to 90 days sick leave on half pay where in the opinion of the a medical doctor the employee will be able to resume duty after such period of sick leave.
If the period of 180 days granted in both (a) and (b) are granted and the employee has still not recovered, the employer may terminate the employment.
Maternity leave
In terms of Section 18 of the Labour Act as read with Section 65 (7) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe women have a right to a fully paid maternity leave for at least ninety-eight days and this is applicable to female employees who have served for at least one year.
Compassionate/ Special Leave
In terms of Section 14B of the Labour Act, an employee is entitled to a maximum of twelve (12) days in a calendar year on compassionate grounds which are justifiable.
Unpaid leave
In terms of Section 14A (5) of the Labour Act the employer may grant vacation leave without pay where an employee has no vacation leave accrued but wants to go on leave.