Any agreement to forgo your leave is invalid – Lawyer advises employees

Managing Partner of Law Alert Group, Charles Bawaduah says it is illegal for an employee to barter their leave in exchange for money.

According to him, this is to ensure that employees are not overworked, get time to rest, rejuvenate and return to their workplace.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Law on Sunday, Charles Bawaduah explained that any agreement whatsoever that encourages workers to forfeit their leave is void, and employers can be sued for it.

“The whole thing about leave is to make sure that the worker actually takes a rest. It’s not all about money, money and money. The worker needs rest to be strong, to be active, to be healthy, to be able to continue to work. So the law says that any agreement to forgo leave is void. It means then that it has no effect. Any agreement to forgo leave is void,” he said.

The show discussed the topic, ‘The Contract of Employment’.

He further stated that in any instance when an employee is forced to forfeit their leave by their employer, the employee is entitled to claiming compensation from the employer.

“In most of these kinds of agreements, the employee agrees to take money. The court says where it is shown that the employer actually prevented the employee from going on leave because of the exigencies of the workplace, then even though the law says the agreement is void, the employee is entitled to claim compensation.

“Because it will not be right to use the employee and when he’s seeking compensation you flag the Labour Act and say no, all that we were doing was illegal,” he said.