Coronavirus and retrenchment procedure

We are a travel agent in Tanzania and faced with zero business. No one is travelling because of the Coronavirus and I cannot afford to retain a large number of people. What is the retrenchment procedure and retrenchment package under the labour laws of Tanzania?
ET, Dar

Retrenchment is one of the reasons for termination of employment by the employer. For it to be valid and fair, the reason and the procedure should follow the law. An employer can retrench employees for economic needs such as the need to scale down or close the operation due to business failure caused by whatever reason including the Coronavirus; technological change that has made the employees redundant or the need to restructure the business. Unfairness of either the reason or the procedure or both vitiates the validity of the retrenchment. For retrenchment to be fair, the employer has to do the following: (i) issue a notice of intention to retrenchment to the employee or his trade union if the employee is unionised staff and (ii) issue a notice of consultation meetings and hold the consultation meetings with the employee or the trade union for unionised staff.

The notice of consultation meetings which is the key notice must contain (a) a brief reason for the intended retrenchment; (b) any measures taken by employer to avoid or minimise the intended retrenchment; (c) the selection criteria for the employees to be retrenchment the usual selection criteria being first in last out (d) timing of the retrenchment ie why retrenchment is being done now (e) severance pay for the retrenchment and (f) any additional retrenchment package.

Additional retrenchment package includes notice pay, transport to the place of recruitment, any remuneration for work done before the termination; payment of any annual leave pay due to an employee for leave that the employee has not taken and any annual leave pay accrued during any incomplete leave cycle. Notice pay is calculated on the remuneration paid to the employee monthly including allowance.

If the employees to be retrenchment are both unionised and non-unionised staff, the employer will have to conduct two different consultation meetings with the trade union for unionised staff and with non-unionised staff. In case of disagreement between employees or the trade union and the employer, either party to the negotiation is free to refer the dispute to the Commission for Mediation and Arbitration and should mediation fail, the dispute can be referred to the High Court, Labour Division for decision.