My office too cold

I am employed at a certain company in Tanzania. As in other places, especially Dra es Salaam, where most offices use air conditioners (ACs), our company also uses ACs. We are sharing office with a number of people, but unfortunately I find the office too cold. To the contrary, others find it warm. This has made me uncomfortable but I cannot do anything. What does the law say?

BR, Dar es Salaam

Thank you for this question, which appears to be a workplace-safety issue. Although it appears to be a safety issue at workplace, the law does not appear to prescribe one exact office temperature. The Occupational Health and Safety Act, 2003 (the Act) places responsibility on employers to provide a workplace that protects employees’ health and safety. The Occupational Safety and Health Authority (OSHA) specifically conducts workplace inspections, risk assessments and industrial-hygiene measurements.

For temperature, the important principle is that the working environment should be maintained at a reasonable and healthy level of comfort, with appropriate ventilation or cooling or other measures, where necessary. This is also consistent with the International Labour Organisation’s guidance that as comfortable and steady a temperature as circumstances permit should be maintained in all premises used by workers.  It should be noted that the fact that your colleagues feel warm while you feel cold does not automatically mean the employer is breaking the law. People have different temperature tolerances.

However, if the air conditioning is consistently so cold that you cannot work comfortably, you are entitled to raise it as a workplace health and safety concern. An appropriate approach, in our view, would be to ask the management to measure and record the actual room temperature, rather than relying on everyone’s subjective feeling; or ask whether the AC setting can be adjusted or whether airflow can be redirected away from you. A unilateral tactic would be to adjust seating arrangements so that you are not directly in front of the AC. If management refuses to address a genuinely uncomfortable or potentially unhealthy environment, you can raise the matter through the relevant Authority, OSHA in this regard. You might also want to consider wearing layered clothing to assist in keeping you warm.

Protection of trade secrets

I have a friend who works in a big company in the US. As we were in a conversation one day, he mentioned something called trade secrets and wanted to know how strictly they were being enforced in Tanzania. Kindly guide.

DM, Mwanza

Trade secret is any confidential business information that provides an enterprise with a competitive edge and commercial value because it is kept secret. Common examples include manufacturing processes, software algorithms, marketing strategies, customer lists, and proprietary recipes (such as the Coca-Cola or Pepsi formula). To legally qualify as a trade secret, the information must be valuable precisely because it is secret, known only to a restricted group of people, and subject to reasonable steps by its owner to maintain its confidentiality.

Tanzania does not have a standalone or specific statute that exclusively protects trade secrets. Instead, trade secrets are protected through a fragmented framework combining international treaties, common law principles, and various domestic statutes. From international legal framework, the World Trade Organization, to which Tanzania is a member, provides an international benchmark through article 39 of the TRIPS Agreement. This international standard requires member nations to protect undisclosed information against unfair competition and dishonest commercial practices.

At domestic level, as indicated above, a number of statutes proffer legal guidance regarding protection of trade secrets. For example, the primary tool for enforcing trade secrets in Tanzania is the Law of Contract Act. Businesses rely heavily on Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), non-compete clauses, and confidentiality stipulations in employment. If a party leaks a trade secret, the owner may sue for breach of contract or breach of confidence under common law and equitable principles. Besides, under law of torts, if an outsider steals a trade secret without having signed a contract (e.g., through industrial espionage), the owner can pursue civil remedies under the law of torts for misappropriation or unfair competition. Equally, under the Employment and Labour Relations Act, employees owe a duty of good faith and fidelity to their employers, prohibiting them from exploiting proprietary information for personal gain. This is also the case with the Cybercrimes Act, 2015 under which if a trade secret is stolen through hacking, data breaches, or unauthorized electronic access, criminal liabilities can be pursued for unauthorized access to data.

Because there is no automatic statutory registration for trade secrets (unlike patents or trademarks registered with Business Registration and Licensing Agency), Tanzanian Courts will likely award damages or injunctions if the owner proves they took active, reasonable steps to guard the data.

President summoned as witness in Court

I am a second-year law student at a certain University in Tanzania. My friends and I sometimes turn ordinary conversations into very serious legal discussions. Recently, we were discussing whether a Tanzanian Court can summon the President to testify as a witness? If summoned, is the President legally obliged to appear?

RM, Dodoma

This is indeed an interesting question. Generally, the Evidence Act provides that every person is competent to testify unless the law says otherwise. However, article 46 of the Constitution gives the President immunity from certain legal proceedings while in office. More specifically, section 9(2) of the Presidential Affairs Act, Cap. 9, provides that no Court or other authority may issue a process requiring or compelling the President to personally appear or attend in any capacity; or requiring or compelling the President to produce any person or thing. So, can a Tanzanian Court issue a compulsory summons to a sitting President to testify? The provisions of law as analysed above do not suggest so. However, in terms of section 9(3) of the Presidential Affairs Act, where a party asks the Court to summon the President as a witness, the Court may consider whether it would ordinarily have granted the request. If so, it may notify the President of the application, but it cannot compel the President to attend.