Termination, notice and severance
The Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act (Cap. 96:01, Act No. 19 of 1997, as amended by Act No. 7 of 1999) came into operation on 20 September 1997. The official L.R.O. 1/2022 chapter records amendment only by Act No. 7 of 1999, records the date 20 September 1997, and contains no subsidiary legislation. It remains the principal statute on termination of employment and on severance or redundancy payments. Current labour administration materials are published by the Ministry of Labour.
A contract of employment for an unspecified period may be terminated by mutual consent; on a ground of redundancy under section 12; or by either party for good or sufficient cause, or by notice given to or served upon the other party (section 7). Section 8 lists reasons that do not constitute good or sufficient cause for dismissal or disciplinary action, including race, sex, religion, colour, ethnic origin, national extraction, social origin, political opinion, family responsibility or marital status; age (subject to any law or collective bargaining provisions on retirement); a female employee’s pregnancy or a reason connected with it; absence due to medically certified sickness or injury; absence due to compulsory military service or other civic obligation; participation in lawful industrial action; refusal to do work normally done by an employee so engaged; and the filing of a complaint or participation in proceedings against the employer involving alleged violations of any rule or law. A dismissal based on any of those grounds, or on a failure of the employer’s obligations under section 11 or 18, is unfair.
A new employee may be required to serve a probationary period, during which either party may terminate the employment at any time for any reason and without notice (section 9). An employer may dismiss summarily, without notice or payment of any severance or redundancy allowance or terminal benefit, an employee who is guilty of serious misconduct directly related to the employment relationship and having a detrimental effect on the employer’s business (section 10). Lesser misconduct and unsatisfactory performance are the subject of written-warning requirements in section 11.
Where a contract for an unspecified period is terminated for redundancy, or by notice, the employer must give minimum written notice of two weeks where the employee has been employed for less than one year, or one month where the employee has been employed for one year or more, except during probation or where the employer is entitled to dismiss summarily (section 15). The same periods apply when the employee gives notice. Notice of termination is not to be given by an employer during an employee’s absence on authorised leave. The Act also provides for payment in lieu of notice (section 16).
Redundancy consultation and severance pay
Redundancy is defined in section 12 by reference to a reduction in the work force that is a direct result of specified circumstances, including modernisation or automation, discontinuance of all or part of the business, sale or other disposition of all or part of the business, reorganisation to improve efficiency, impossibility or impracticability of carrying on the business at its usual rate or at all for stated reasons, or a reduced operation made necessary by economic conditions. Before terminating employment for redundancy, the employer must, as early as possible but not later than one month from the date those circumstances exist, inform the recognised trade union or, if none exists, the employee or the employee’s representative, and the Chief Labour Officer, of the circumstances, the reasons for the contemplated termination, the number and categories of persons likely to be affected, the period over which termination is likely to be carried out, and other relevant matters. The employer must also consult those persons, within the same time, on possible measures to avert or mitigate the adverse effects.
On termination of employment, an employee who has completed one or more years of continuous employment is entitled to a severance or redundancy allowance of one week’s wages for each of the first five completed years of service, two weeks’ wages for each completed year after the fifth year and up to the tenth year, and three weeks’ wages for each completed year in excess of ten years, up to a maximum of fifty-two weeks (section 21). Payment of that allowance does not affect any entitlement to payment in lieu of notice under section 16. The allowance does not apply where the employee is summarily dismissed under section 10, or where employment is terminated under section 9 or 11, or in the further cases set out in section 21(4), including an unreasonable refusal of a qualifying offer of re-employment in a redundancy.
Work permits and local hiring
A foreign national who intends to take up employment in Guyana requires a landing permit for employment, administered through Immigration Support Services of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Official materials require that the vacancy be advertised in the newspapers for three consecutive months before a permit is sought. Immigration status and the employment contract should be in place before work starts. Registration of a contractor’s company in Guyana does not itself authorise a foreign employee to work.
Contractors and operators in the petroleum sector may have additional hiring and procurement duties under the Local Content Act 2021, which are described in the firm’s [note on that Act](/insights/guyanas-local-content-act-2021). Those duties are specific to persons to whom that Act applies, and they sit alongside, rather than in place of, TESPA and the immigration regime.