Chapter 2: A critical analysis on the legal framework in Uganda on whether the

employment laws cater for the rights and needs of people with disabilities

2.1-chapter overview

This chapter talks and makes a critical analysis on the legal framework in Uganda which caters
for the employment rights of people with disabilities. We shall look at how Uganda has
promoted the employment rights and needs of people with disabilities through the different acts
and statutes. We shall look at the constitution of Uganda of 1995 as amended, the people with
disabilities act 2020, the employment act 2006. This analysis will bring out our two major areas
of discussion showing how these laws have improved the lives of people with disabilities in
Uganda in the employment sector and also critiquec the laws and show how the gaps in these
laws and how they have contributed to the discrimination of the people with disabilities in
Uganda in the employment sector. This research will help identify the gaps and assist reduce the
discrimination of people with disabilities in Uganda in the employment sector.

2.2-The legal framework on the rights and needs of people with disabilities in Uganda in
the employment sector.

Article 21(2) of the 1995 constitution as amended provides for non-discrimination. It states
that,” without prejudice, a person shall not be discriminated on the grounds of sex, race, colour,
ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, or social or economic standing, political opinion or
disability.” This means that no discrimination on the rights of the people with disabilities, the
laws apply to them too. The laws should protect everyone,

Article 32 of the 1995 constitution as amended provides for affirmative action in favour of the
marginalized groups of people on the basis of gender, age, disability, or any other reason created
by history, tradition or customs for the purpose of redressing imbalances which exist against
them. Therefore, these affirmative actions are needed to reduce the gap on discrimination against
the marginalized groups.

Article 35 of the 1995 constitution as amended provides for rights of people with disabilities.
It states that persons with disabilities have a right to respect and human dignity and the state
society shall take appropriate measures to ensure that they realize their full mental and physical
potential. This article promotes respect and dignity for people with disabilities.
Article 40(1) (b) of the 1995 constitution as amended provides that parliament shall enact laws
to ensure equal payment for equal work without discrimination. This promotes equal payment for
everyone without disregarding anyone and this promotes the rights of people with disabilities in
the employment sector.

We can see that these rights and needs are promoted in the employment act 2006. We look at
section 6(3) of the employment act 2006, provides for discrimination in employment. It states
that discrimination in employment shall be unlawful and for the purposes of this Act,
discrimination includes any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis of race,
colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, the HIV status or
disability which has the effect of nullifying or impairing the treatment of a person in employment
or occupation, or of preventing an employee from obtaining any benefit under a contract of
service.

We also have the people with disabilities act 2020 which talks about non-discrimination in
employment towards the people with disabilities. Section 9 (2) of this act states that an
employer shall in any advertisement for a jab, where appropriate, encourage persons with
disabilities to apply for the job, provide an applicant with a disability who applies for a job,
reasonable accommodation necessary to undertake the job interview; and, provide an employee
with a disability reasonable accommodation in the performance of the job or task. These laws
accommodate for the rights and needs for the people with disabilities as they are given a fair
chance in the employment sector as they are not categorized under the majority of the people.

The above provisions on discrimination against people with disabilities provide for the rights and
needs of people with disabilities in the employment sector.

However, these acts and statutes have had short comings in the Employment act 2006, the
Constitution of Uganda of 1995 and the people with Disabilities Act 2020.

The Constitution of Uganda of 1995 as amended has no explicit recognition that people with
disabilities have the same rights as people without. They place them under the marginalized
group of people making them vulnerable people so in that case they wouldn’t be treated the same
as the ordinary people, they will in most of the cases be discriminated from society and still will
face challenges pf employment as they will not be able to regard them the same as those people
without disabilities.

We see this in Article 32 of the 1995 Constitution of Uganda as amended, which states that
the state shall take affirmative action in favour of groups marginalized on the basis of gender,
age, disability or any other reason created by history, tradition or custom. This does not explicitly
identify people with disabilities as the same as those without.

The 1995 Constitution of Uganda does not define who people with disabilities are in society
but instead provides for the laws to protect them without telling society who these people are.
The constitution is regarded as the Supreme law of Uganda under Article 2 of the Constitution.
This is where all laws derive from and in order to raise awareness to the people with disabilities
in Uganda, the constitution of Uganda needs to define who people with disabilities are and just
not providing for the laws that protect them because then people would not know who these
people are. There would be a lot of ignorance in that topic concerning people with disabilities.

As the constitution of Uganda is the supreme law of Uganda and all laws derive from it, it is
supposed to impose more laws concerning with people with disabilities and not just providing for
without doing so much more to impose the laws. The Constitution has non- derogable rights and
Article 35 is not among them meaning they can be changed and there is no serious consequence
for the violation of these rights. Article 35(1) states that persons with disabilities have a right to
respect and human dignity and the state and the society shall take appropriate measures to ensure
that they realise their full mental and physical potential and subsection 2 states that parliament
shall enact laws appropriate for the protection of persons with disabilities. This is all it provides
for with no sanctions. It has neither laid emphasis nor criminalized the discrimination. It hasn’t
set the basis for people with disabilities to demand for recognition of their rights.

We have the People with Disabilities Act 2020; this act has some what been a disadvantage to
people with disabilities as it has led to a situation where the government or the people who
implement these laws for people with disabilities not know how to intervene in disability
programs because it is some what hard to determine whether the people with disables act is an
exclusively welfare law or an anti-social discrimination law. It has hard to intervene because one
wouldn’t know whether to defend them on a basis as trying to include them in society so as to be
the same with the people or defend them as a group of people on their own different from the rest
of society. This is the difficulty that has come with the People with Disabilities Act 2020 as
there can be no clear intervention for the people with disabilities.

In regards to the People with Disabilities Act 2020, the laws that exist for the criminalization of
people who violate the laws of the act that provide for discrimination on employment are less
and old. Section 9(7) of the People with Disabilities Act 2020 states that, “an employer who
contravenes this section commits an offence and is liable, on conviction to a fine not exceeding
one hundred currency points or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both. The
criminalization in this section is low and this will not encourage people to still respect the
rights and needs of the people with disabilities in the employment sector.

We look at section 9(5) of the people with disabilities act 2020 which provides for the
deduction of the chargeable income tax. It states that, “an employer with employees with
disabilities shall be allowed deductions of up to ten percent on the chargeable income as maybe
provided in the income tax. This may seem as a good law to promote employment for people
with disabilities but it is highly a negative law because employers will only higher people with
disabilities so as to deduct a certain ten percent of income tax from the chargeable income tax
with no regard as to the conditions of the work place and if they favour people with disabilities.
This leads to exploitation of the people with disabilities and this denies them their rights and
needs in the employment sector as they are just exploited because of the benefits and not
provided with proper working conditions in the working environment.

Section 9(6) of the People with Disabilities Act puts out a list for people to be employed to
employers. It states that,’’ the minister shall in consultation with the council and employers’
organizations, determine the quota of persons with disabilities workforce for employers, and by
statutory instrument publish the agreed quota at least once in every two years. Once in every two
years is little time for one to actually get a job. This means once in every two years there is little
people being employed to work from the section of people with disabilities, this leaves another
large number of group of people with disabilities unemployed for at least two years and in most
cases, one might not appear on the list of workers. This leaves some people unemployed and they
are therefore, denied the right and needs t be employed, therefore, the law does not provide for
the rights and needs of people with disabilities.
We also look at the Employment Act of 2006. It also has short comings. We look at section
55(1) of the Employment Act 2006 which provides for sick pay. It states that, an employee who
has completed not less than one month’s continuous service with an employer and who is
incapable of work because of sickness or injury is entitles to sick pay for the first month’s
absence from work he or she is entitled to full wages and every other benefit whether for his or
her family or himself herself stipulated in the contract of service and if at the expiration of the
second month the sickness of the employee still continues the employer is entitled to terminate
the contract of service on complying with all the terms of the contract of service up to the time of
termination of employment. This section does not look at the people with disabilities as it doesn’t
create laws to favour them as they are at the at most risk of staying longer than the intended days.
We give an example to the deaf who have to get new ear impairments and sometimes these take
about 2- 3 months to be shipped in, the people with disabilities are at high risk of losing their
jobs as to an over stay of sick pay. The provisions in this section do not cater for people with
disabilities and hence why I agree that the rights and needs of people with disabilities in Uganda
in the employment sector are hardly in existence.

We can also look at section 56 of the employment act 2006 which caters fir maternity leave.
In most cases we notice that people with disabilities most of the times have high risk
complications when pregnant or during and after giving birth to the child. Subsection 1 states
that a female employee shall as a consequence of pregnancy, have the right to a period of sixty
working days leave from work on full wages of which at least four weeks shall follow the child
birth or miscarriage. Subsection 3 states that in the event of sickness arising out of pregnancy or
confinement, affecting either the mother or the baby and making the mother’s return to work
inadvisable the right to return will be available eight weeks after the birth or the miscarriage.
This law too does not provide for the marginalized groups such as people with disabilities and
yet people with disabilities stand a high risk of having higher complications during child birth
than any other normal person. Therefore, they stand a higher risk of losing their jobs because
over stay in recovery and thus the rights and needs of the people with disabilities in the
employment sector are not catered for in Uganda’s employment sector.
These have been the short comings of the laws in the different provisions in the above different
statutes, they have denied the rights and needs for people with disabilities in Uganda and hence
the discrimination against people with disabilities in the employment sector in Uganda is still
highly available in Uganda.

The national laws compared to the international conventions are a little different as the
international conventions provide in a few ways better laws that create more awareness for
people with disabilities such as the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Some the provisions in the convention hold better standard to the national laws in Uganda such
as:

Article 8 of the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities provides for awareness for
raising people with disabilities. Subsection 1a) states that state parties should undertake to adopt
immediate, effective appropriate measures, to raise awareness throughout society, including at
the family level regarding persons with disabilities, and to foster respect for the rights and
dignity of persons with disabilities, b) combat stereotypes, prejudices and harmful practices
relating to persons with disabilities, including those based on sex and age, in all areas of life and
promote awareness of the capabilities and contributions of persons with disabilities. These laws
have campaigned for awareness against stigmatization of people with disabilities which creates
ab lesser gap for discrimination in the employment sector against people with disabilities.

Article 16(3) of the convention states that in order to prevent the occurrence of all forms of
exploitation, violence and abuse, state parties shall ensure that all facilities and programs
designed to serve persons with disabilities are effectively monitored by independent authorities.
Independent authorities help monitor and give actual statistics because they are not monitored
and influenced by the government this promotes the rights and needs of people with disabilities
including in the employment sector.

Article 27(f) provides for discrimination against people with disabilities in the employment
sector and it promotes opportunities for self-employment, enter entrepreneurship, the
development of cooperatives and starting one’s own business. The promotion of self-
employment helps one be his or her own boss and as a disabled person will be able to create an
environment safe for people with disabilities and good working conditions. The rights of people
with disabilities in the employment sector will highly be prompted and respected in such
working areas, hence forth the rights and needs of people with disabilities are promoted in this
convention.

Article 31 of the convention promotes for statistics and data collection. Statistics and data
collection encourage the government to easily formulate and implement policies that give effect
to the conventions. Therefore, knowing the number of disabled or unemployed disabled people
in the employment sector helps to make the work of the implementers of the policies that will
promote or create job employment for the people with disabilities a smooth operation. Therefore,
with the information the rights and needs of people with disabilities in the employment sector.

It is a very important aspect to note that Uganda ratified this convention but certain laws as listed
above have not been promoted in the Constitution which is the supreme law of Uganda, the
Constitution of Uganda guides the people and it is from that the other laws are formed, it makes
it difficult for the implementers to intervene since these laws have not been amended and
promoted to be put in the constitution of Uganda. It therefore, creates a confusion on whether to
follow the national laws or follow the international laws too.

In conclusion, as the research has shown, several articles and provisions of the Constitution of
Uganda of 1995 as mended, the People with Disabilities Act 2020 and the Employment Act 2006
are not doing a great service to promoting the rights and needs of the people with disabilities in
Uganda. The problem started from the Constitution of Uganda of 1995, which failed to impose
more and better laws for people with disabilities and since all the laws derive their laws from the
constitution and should not contravene it, it becomes hard to update some of the laws in the
People with Disabilities Act 2020 and the employment act 2006. It would therefore, need
Uganda to actually amend the constitution and promote laws or impose the rights of people with
disabilities as non-derogable as they are a must to be protected and no one should tamper with
them.

This research has also shown that the international conventions hold better standards of rights
and needs of people with disabilities than the national conventions such as the constitution of
Uganda of 1995 and the employment act. The employment act needs to be amended and more
provisions for people with disabilities should be added so as to promote the rights and needs of
people with disabilities in Uganda in the employment sector since it is majorly for employment
and that is what our research is about.

Therefore, the provisions in the national laws of Uganda that cater for the rights and needs of
people with disabilities in the employment sector of Uganda need to be moved up to the
standards of the international conventions for a better improvement.

This research intends to find solutions in which we can reduce the gap on the discrimination
against people with disabilities in Uganda, through finding ways in which the laws can be made
better to provide, protect and promote the rights and needs of people with disabilities in Uganda.