After being out of work for months, Jake was eager to find employment with a steady pay check. A friend informed him of an open position in a certain company. He applied for the position and was invited for an interview. After some discussion, he secured a position. He started working a week later temporarily for a month. Jake worked diligently and was found to be such a good employee that he was recommended for another position permanently. The company’s human resources department informed him via a contract of the position and the terms were spelt out. Being a new role, the setup was not complete, such as the workstation he would occupy. He was advised to work from home since in the new role he was capable of working from home. Jake was elated with his new role and dove into the role with vigour.
When his end-of-month payslip arrived, he noticed that the five days he had worked from home had not been captured. He raised this matter with his manager, who informed him that he was being paid from the day he started working at his workstation. The human resource department advised him to raise the matter with them and they corrected the anomaly and compensated him for the five days he worked from home.
This provision of the employment act, and others later in the employment act, indicates clearly that the commencement date was as stipulated in the contract and that his workplace was as advised by his employer, where he worked the first five days from home. Jake is, therefore, entitled to the five days not paid and should be compensated for them since they were working days. Even where the workplace instructions, additional to a contract, are verbally communicated, the law considers such instructions legally binding.
Employees should know about such critical aspects of employment, especially where the employer may be ill-advised and not know about this provision. It assists employees when it comes to defending their claim whenever such scenarios occur.
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