… For the reasons stated above the award of gratuity in favour of the respondent by the subordinate court was proper. It is therefore not valid for an employer to submit that express terms which she published and applied on her staff were only mere policy guidelines. It is also this courts finding that not every correspondence by the employer creating rights and obligations in employment relationship need to be countersigned by the employee in order to become binding. For example a letter of promotion, salary review and transfers need not be signed by the employee once the employer has exercised that right or discretion.Ĭonsequently the lack of signature by respondent on the Management Terms and Conditions of service 2002 did not render them inapplicable to the respondent. This court firmly holds that the said terms and conditions of service, 2002 applied to the respondents employment contract….

….This court while appreciating the provisions of Section 14(2) of the employment Act Cap 226 supra, is alive to the fact that a contract of employment can consists of terms contained in a series of separate documents and memoranda published by employer to their staff. In the case, an employee claimed gratuity based on the Management Terms and Conditions of service, the court stated The foregoing issues were adjudicated upon in the case of Coastal Bottlers Ltd v George Karanja eKLR. Whether the employee has to countersign the company’s policies for the them to have effect Whether the policy will be in conflict with the contract if the former provides for gratuity and the latter does not.ģ. Whether an employee will be entitled to gratuity if not provided for in contract but company policy provides for the same.Ģ.

It is not a mandatory payment under the employment laws. Some employers however have provision for gratuity provided for in the organisation’s policies. Gratuity is usually only payable if it is provided for in the contract.

It is therefore by its very nature discretionary. Gratuity as correctly enunciated by the Court of Appeal in Bamburi Cement Ltd vs Farid Aboud Mohammed eKLR denotes a gratis payment by an employer in appreciation of service.

Gratuity request letter to company