President Paul Kagame has referred to as on related establishments to deal with instances of unpaid wages and maintain employers accountable for failing to pay their staff.
Talking at a press convention in Kigali on Monday, August 24, he mentioned employers who fail to pay their staff must be held accountable.
“There must be accountability for these individuals who make use of others and don’t pay them. It has occurred a number of instances,” he mentioned.
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Kagame pledged to deal with the difficulty, which has reportedly been prevalent within the personal sector.
“We will kind it out. There are ministers in cost. It shouldn’t occur,” he mentioned.
Rwandan labour legislation requires employers to supply employment contracts, which can be written or oral, though written contracts are obligatory for jobs lasting greater than six months. Employers are additionally required to pay staff’ wages on time.
Labour inspections and compliance assessments performed between January and June 2026 resulted in sanctions towards 71 institutions for violating labour legal guidelines and rules.
In line with the Ministry of Public Service and Labour (MIFOTRA), all 71 institutions had been personal companies working throughout varied financial sectors.
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They included 10 institutions in manufacturing, one in agriculture, one in mining and quarrying, two in vitality, three in building, 18 in wholesale commerce, one in transportation, 21 in lodging and meals providers, three in info and communication, eight in training, and three in well being and social work.
Most institutions had been fined for failing to implement suggestions issued by labour inspectors, notably these regarding written employment contracts, cost of salaries by financial institution accounts, registration for social safety and cost of pension contributions, in addition to compliance with occupational security and well being (OSH) necessities.
OSH violations had been the commonest.
Different institutions had been fined for failing to look earlier than labour inspectors after being lawfully summoned over labour disputes. The institutions had been fined between Rwf100,000 and Rwf500,000.
Throughout the first half of 2026, labour inspectors visited 2,290 workplaces nationwide to evaluate employers’ compliance with labour laws.
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MIFOTRA’s report additionally exhibits that 814 labour disputes had been efficiently resolved by mediation and different dispute-resolution mechanisms through the six-month interval.
This implies the disputes between employers and staff had been settled with out resorting to courtroom proceedings.
In line with the Rwanda Labour Drive Survey Annual Report 2025 by the Nationwide Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR), the working-age inhabitants aged 16 and above reached about 8.5 million in 2025.
Of those, 4.8 million had been employed, whereas 676,000 had been unemployed however actively in search of work. One other 3.1 million had been exterior the labour drive.
