Transport and subsistence allowance after resignation

In January 2019 our Company employed a civil engineer on a two-year renewable contract. He was recruited in Dar es Salaam and posted to Morogoro where we have a branch. Two weeks ago he voluntarily resigned giving a 24 hour notice. He paid the Company a 1-month remuneration in lieu of notice according to the employment contract and the labour law. 2 weeks after depositing the notice pay to the Company’s bank account, he lodged a claim for transport allowance for himself, family and personal effects from Morogoro to Dar es Salaam. He is also claiming to be paid subsistence allowance from the date of resignation to the date he will be transported to  Dar es Salaam or given the transport allowance. Are his claims genuine? What does the law say on these claims?
TR, Morogoro

Rule 3(1)(a) and (2)(d) of the Employment and Labour Relations (Code of Good Practice) Rules, 2007 (Rules) recognises resignation as one of the forms of termination of employment contracts. However, rule 6(1) of the Rules imposes a condition that an employee serving a fixed term contract should not resign before the expiry of his fixed contract term unless he gets the employer to agree to his resignation or he proves that the employer has materially breached the contract to the extent of forcing him to resign.

If an employee resigns without consent of the management, he is taken to have breached the contract and cannot be entitled to a repatriation cost or any other terminal dues including subsistence allowance pending the repatriation to his place of recruitment. But if an employee seeks and obtains consent of the management to resign before the expiration of his fixed term contract, his resignation is treated as a lawful resignation and for that matter he is entitled to a repatriation or transport cost from place of termination to place of recruitment just like a resignation by an employee with unspecified term contract.

The employee’s right to a repatriation or transport cost from his work station to the place of recruitment is provided under section 43 and 44(1)(f) of the Employment and Labour Relations Act, 2004. The employer has three ways of transporting the employee to the place of recruitment. The employer can use the Company’s car to transport the employee, his family and personal effects to the place of recruitment. The second method is hiring a car for the employee to repatriate him. The third way is by paying the employee a transport allowance equal to a bus fare up to the bus station which is nearest to the employee’s place of recruitment. The bus fare covers the employee, his spouse and children. The law is silent on the number of spouses or children covered.

Taking into account the discussions above, apart from the transport cost, the employer has to pay the employee subsistence allowance between the date of resignation and the date of transporting him to the place of recruitment. The law does not provide the rate of subsistence allowance but we think it should be equal to the daily basic wage of the employee.