Abstract:
COVID-19 pandemic has caused tremendous effects to
the world of work globally and Tanzania is not
exceptional. Due to containment measures adopted
production and consumption of goods and services has
been disturbed causing disruptions in demand and
supply chain. This has made organizations to undergo
retrenchment due to operational requirements.
Whereas labor laws provide for protection of
employees’ rights during the retrenchment exercise, the
practice has proven to be otherwise. This paper
employed qualitative methodology and conducted an
in-depth interview to twelve purposeful selected
respondents from education and tourism sector and
legal experts, to analyze the situation in Tanzania. The
key finding is despite the fact the employees are
knowledgeable of employers breaching of their rights,
they are not willing to take legal action due to the
promised reemployment. It is recommended to review
the labor laws to make them proactive, engage in
bilateral negotiations in cases where labor laws are
silent, social security funds have to be responsive in
such uncertainties and the government has to oversee
that employers get prepared for such quandaries.
