Section 1: In this Act unless the context otherwise requires -

"assessor" means an official appointed to assist a Judge in the Industrial Court; "authorised officer" means the Commissioner of Labour and Employment or any other officer acting on his behalf and appointed by the Public Service Commission to give effect of this Act; "award" means a judgment or decision by the Court; "business" means any trade, undertaking, operation and establishment, whether corporate, public or private; "check-off" means the system of deducting union dues from the wages or salary of an employee by an employer; "Commissioner " means the Commissioner of Labour appointed by the Public Service Commission under section 4; "compensation" means compensation as provided for by this Act; "Congress" means the Sierra Leone Labour Congress being the most representative organisation of employees; "contract of employment or service" means a contract or agreement containing the conditions and terms of employment or service, whether written or oral, whether expressed or implied, individually or collectively, for a definite or indefinite period, whereby an employee agrees in return for wages or other remunerations to work for an employer, employing organisation, institution or business establishment,including a contract of apprenticeship, in the public or private sector; "Court" means the High Court; "dispute" includes differences concerning employment contracts between an employer and an employee arising from terms and conditions of service of employees; "earnings" include wages and allowances paid to an employee by an employer and the value of food, fuel accommodation, overtime payment or other special remuneration or benefit in kind; "employer" means any person or group of persons including a government, any firm, corporation or company, a public or local authority, a partnership or business, or any other entity whatsoever for whom one or more employees work or have worked or normally work under a contract of employment and includes any person, heirs, successors or assignees, or any firm, corporation, company, authority or body who is placed in authority over all other employees employed by such person or group of persons, firm, company, corporation, or authority; "employers' organisation" means an organisation of employers that has among its principal objects the regulation of collective relations between employers and employees; "employment and occupation" include access to vocational training, access to employment and to particular occupations and terms and conditions of employment; "environment" means a working environment or premises in which work is done by an employee; "Federation" includes the Sierra Leone Employers' Federation ; "health" in relation to work means not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but it also includes the physical and mental elements affecting health which are directly related to safety and hygiene at work; "industrial action" means a temporary show of dissatisfaction by employees by a concerted withdrawal of labour or restriction upon the availability or quantity of labour on the part of employees, strike, slowdown or working to rule in 2 3 Interpretation. No. 6 The Industrial Relations and Trade Union Act 2024 No. 6 The Industrial Relations and Trade Union Act 2024 order to protest against bad working conditions or low pay and to increase bargaining power with the employer and to force the employer to improve them by reducing productivity in a workplace, usually organised by trade unions or other organised labour; "industrial court" means a division of the High Court designated to adjudicate disputes between employers and employees over employment rights and industrial disputes; "Industrial Disputes" means any controversy or difference arising from disagreement between an employee or trade union and employers(s) concerning terms and conditions of service or employment; "Industrial Relations" means all types of relations between employers and employees, be they at national, regional or company level and to all dealings with social and economic issues such as wage setting, working time and any other issues arising out of terms and conditions of service; "Joint Consultative Committee" means an advisory committee on labour matters referred to in section 12; "Joint National Negotiating Board" means the Joint National Negotiating Board for employees referred to in section 14; "Judicial and Legal Services Commission" means a body established under section 140 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991 (Act No. 6 of 1991) with a mandate to advise the Chief Justice in the performance of his administrative functions and to regulate the activities of members of the Judiciary; 4 5 "Labour Official" means an officer appointed by the Public Service Commission in whom the Commissioner may delegate his functions and powers generally or in part for the effective and efficient performance of his functions under this Act; "lock-out" means a total or partial closing of a place of employment or the suspension of work by one or more employers, or the refusal by an employer to employ a number of persons employed by him in consequence of a dispute, done with a view to compelling those persons to accept terms and conditions affecting the employment, but does not include the closing of a place of employment for the protection of property or persons therein; "Minister" means the Minister responsible for labour and ministry shall be construed accordingly; "national minimum wage" means the existing national minimum wage fixed by the Joint National Negotiating Board; "person" means a person or group of persons, company, firm, corporation or any other kind of body including their agents; "Public Service Commission" means a body established under sub-section (1) of section 151 of the Constitution of Sierra Leone, 1991 (Act No.6 of 1991); "registered organisations" means registered trade unions and employers' organisationsunder thisAct; "Registrar" means the Registrar of trade unions and employers' organisations; "representative of employers and employees" mean a person who have been designated and eligible for appointment to theJoint ConsultativeCommitteeby the Federation and the Congress respectively; "strike" means thecessation of work or refusal to work organised by a body of employees as a form of protest, typically in an attempt to gain concession or concessions from their employer; No. 6 The Industrial Relations and Trade Union Act 2024 No. 6 The Industrial Relations and Trade Union Act 2024 "supervisor" means an employee having authority, in a workplace, to recommend the hire, transfer, suspension, layoff, recall, promotion, discharge, reward of discipline of other employees or to recommend such action; "trade dispute" means a disagreement or difference between employers and employees connected with the employment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour of an employee, and includes a dispute connected with to any of the following- (a) terms and conditions of employment including remuneration for employment; (b) the engagement of an employee; (c) the times at which, or the conditions under which any work is, or is not performed; (d) the demotion, suspension or imposition of any other penalty or discipline of an employee; (e) the termination of any agreement by which work is to be performed; (f) the grievance or complaint of an employee in respect of his employment; (g) the machinery for negotiating matters specified in paragraphs (a) to (f) or for the settlement of a grievance or dispute relating to an employee or other work-related dispute. "Trade Group Council" means a Trade Group Negotiating Council established under section 27; "trade union" means an organisation of employees that has among its principal objects the regulation of collective relations between employees and employers; 6 7 "wage" means remuneration or earnings, however designated or calculated, capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by mutual agreement or by laws, which is payable by virtue of a written or unwritten contract of employment by an employer to an employee for work done or to be done or for services rendered or to be rendered; "week" means a period of 5 working days; "workplace" means a place where employees need to be or to go by reason of their work and which are under the direct or indirect control of their employer; "employee" means a person who has entered into or works under a contract of employment or other contract with an employer, whether the contract is of manual labour, clerical work or otherwise, expressed or implied and whether it is a contract of service or a contract concerning learning or a contract personally to execute work or labour and includes an outworker. PART II:-ADMINISTRATION AND JURISDICTION