Hiring in the DR Congo: the work card, the contract and what comes off pay, step by step

Move someone who is already in the DR Congo

The National Commission for the Employment of Foreigners decides on each request to hire a foreign national. A move to a new employer is a new hire, so it goes to the Commission again. The new contract needs ONEM's approval too.

A Congolese national needs no work card. Their move turns on the notice they give, which is half the notice their employer would owe them.

Check the role is open to a non-Congolese

The National Commission for the Employment of Foreigners decides on each request to hire a foreign national. It also advises the labour minister on protecting the national workforce from foreign competition.

Ministerial orders cap the share of foreign staff a business can employ, by sector. Every business declares its national and foreign staff each year, with its social report, to the labour ministry's employment service and ONEM, by 31 January.

Set the contract up right

The labour code requires a contract of employment to be in writing. A contract that is not written is presumed open-ended until the contrary is proved. It is drafted in French. An employee who does not read French can ask for a translation into a national language, and the French original prevails. Before the work starts, a doctor certifies that the employee is fit for it. Where there is no doctor, a nurse gives a provisional certificate, and the employee is examined within three months of starting.

A trial clause is agreed in writing. It lasts no longer than the job needs, and at most a month for an unskilled labourer or six months for anyone else. A longer clause is cut back to these limits by law. Work beyond the trial confirms the contract. During it, either side can end the contract for a valid reason on three working days' notice. Within its first three days, either side can end it without notice, with pay due for each day begun.

A permanent job is filled on an open-ended contract. A fixed term runs for up to two years. It runs for a year at most for a married worker living apart from their family, and for a widowed, separated or divorced worker living apart from children in their care. No one works more than two fixed terms for the same employer, or has a fixed term renewed more than once, outside seasonal work, defined works and the other cases an order lists. A fixed term that breaks these rules is open-ended by law. An employer that ends a fixed term early, outside gross misconduct, owes the pay and benefits up to its end.

A clause barring the employee from working for others after the contract ends is void, with one exception. Where the employee was dismissed for gross misconduct, or left without the employer's gross misconduct, it can apply. It then covers only the work they did for the employer, where they know its clients or secrets well enough to do it serious harm, for no more than a year.

Pay is stipulated in Congolese francs, the legal tender, and paid in money. It is paid at intervals of no more than a month, within six days of the period it covers, with a written statement each time. Family allowances are owed for each child in the employee's care, at a daily minimum the decree sets at the ordinary labourer's daily minimum wage divided by 27. A housing allowance is owed, at the amount the contract, a collective agreement or the company rules set. A hire brought from elsewhere is given decent housing, or an allowance in its place. The employer also bears the cost of getting staff between home and work, beyond a distance an order sets.

The minimum wage is CDF 21,500 a day for an ordinary labourer, and a month's pay is the daily rate times 26. Each higher grade has a higher daily minimum: the heavy labourer, the specialised, semi-skilled, skilled and highly skilled worker, the supervisor and the cadre de collaboration, up to CDF 215,000 at the top grade.

The legal week is 45 hours, and the working day eight hours. Hours beyond the legal week are overtime. The first six are paid at 30% more, later ones at 60% more, and hours on the weekly rest day at 100% more. Night work, from 19:00 to 05:00, is paid at a higher rate too. Every worker has at least 24 hours of rest in each seven days, on Sunday.

Know the employee test before you engage a contractor

The DR Congo's labour code treats as a worker anyone of working age, whatever their sex, civil status or nationality, who has undertaken to put their professional activity, for pay, under the direction and authority of another person within a contract of employment. Neither side's legal status counts in deciding it.

A contract of employment can be written or oral. The code applies to every contract performed in the DR Congo, wherever it was signed. A day labourer who has worked 22 days within two months, and is hired again within them, is on an open-ended contract.

Every worker under the code falls within the CNSS, whatever the nature, form or validity of their contract. A role that needs a work card goes through employer of record.

Know what comes off pay each month

Income tax on pay is the IRPP. The employer withholds it each month, on an annual scale, from pay once the employee's pension contribution comes off.

The tax never exceeds 30% of taxable income. It is reduced by 2% for each dependant, up to nine, though not on the part of income above the third band. A housing allowance is free of the tax where it is no more than 30% of pay.

The CNSS takes 5% of pay from the employee, for pensions. You pay 5% for pensions, 6.5% for family benefits and 1.5% for occupational risks. Contributions are worked out on the whole of pay, and never on less than the minimum wage. They are declared and paid within 15 days of the month's end. A late payment adds 0.5% of the amount due for each day.

You also pay ONEM 0.5% of each month's pay. It is declared by the 10th of the month after the pay, and paid within 15 days of the end of the month the pay was made. A training contribution goes to the INPP too, at the rate the government sets. For expatriate staff, you pay a levy of 25% of their gross pay.

Know the leave your people are entitled to

End employment on the law's terms

An open-ended contract ends at the employer's initiative only for a valid reason tied to the employee's fitness or conduct at work, or to the needs of running the business. Union activity, a complaint against the employer, pregnancy, absence on maternity leave, HIV status and the other grounds the code lists are never valid reasons. Before a dismissal for fitness or conduct, the employer lets the employee answer what is held against them. The letter that ends the contract states the reason. The two sides can also end it by agreement.

Notice from the employer is at least 14 working days for workers, with seven more for each full year of continuous service. Supervisors get a month, with nine working days more for each year, and managers three months, with 16 more for each year. An employee who resigns gives half the notice the employer would owe. During notice, the employee has one paid day off a week to look for work. Outside the cases the code lists, notice is not given during leave or while the contract is suspended. The side that ends a contract without notice owes the other the pay and benefits of the notice not worked.

For gross misconduct, either side can end the contract at once. The decision is notified in writing within 15 working days of learning the facts.

A dismissal for the needs of the business, or for economic reasons, goes to the labour inspector for authorisation. The inspector decides within 60 calendar days, and silence counts as approval. A larger dismissal, past the thresholds an order sets, needs the labour minister's authorisation. For an economic dismissal, the staff representatives are told in writing at least 15 days ahead. Those least able to do the jobs kept go first. Between workers equally able, the most recently hired go first, with a year's seniority added for a married worker and for each dependent child. A worker let go keeps priority for rehiring in the same category of job for a year. The priority runs for a year more after that, when rehiring can depend on a trial.

Where a dismissal has no valid reason, a labour court can order reinstatement. Failing reinstatement, the court sets damages by the nature of the job, the employee's seniority and age, and their rights, at no more than 36 months' last pay.

A certificate of service is owed within two working days of the end, and what remains due is paid in the same time. A claim from the contract is brought within three years, and a claim for pay within a year.

See what changed this year, and what is next