Hiring in Eswatini: the entry permit, the contract and a salary worked through, step by step

Move someone who is already in Eswatini

An entry permit is issued for a particular employment. It stops being valid if the holder leaves that employment, or takes up other work, without an immigration officer's written approval. A move to a new employer goes through the immigration authorities before it happens. The Chief Immigration Officer can vary a permit's terms and conditions.

A citizen of Eswatini needs no permit. Their move turns on the notice their contract sets, which is at least a month for staff paid monthly.

Check the role is open to a non-citizen

No one who is not a citizen of Eswatini may work there, paid or not, without an entry permit that authorises it. Knowingly employing someone who works without one is an offence.

A Class A permit turns on three things: specific employment with a specific employer, a person qualified for it, and an engagement that will benefit Eswatini. The immigration officer weighs each application on those terms.

Set the contract up right

A contract of employment can be express or implied, oral or written. Within six weeks of the start, the employee is given written particulars on the form in the Employment Act's Second Schedule, signed by both sides before a witness. The form sets out the wage and how it is worked out, when it is paid, the normal hours, the work, the probation period, annual leave, paid public holidays, sick pay, maternity leave and the notice each side gives. It is not needed for someone normally working fewer than 21 hours a week.

A probation period lasts up to three months. For supervisory, technical or confidential work, its length is fixed in writing at engagement. During it, either side can end the contract without notice.

Wages are paid in legal tender, or by cheque with the employee's consent. For staff paid monthly, they are due at the end of each month. Each payment comes with a wage slip showing the rate, the hours paid at ordinary and overtime rates, any bonuses or allowances, the deductions and the net pay.

The normal hours of work are set out in the written particulars. Paid public holidays come from the Wages Regulation Order or the collective agreement that covers the work. For domestic employees, the Act itself allows eight hours' actual work a day and 48 over six days, with a rest day each week. Overtime is worked only by consent, and paid at one and a half times the normal rate at least.

Know the employee test before you engage a contractor

Eswatini's Employment Act treats as an employee anyone to whom wages are paid under a contract of employment. That contract can be a contract of service, an apprenticeship or a traineeship, express or implied, oral or written. A casual employee is paid at the end of each day and engaged for no more than 24 hours at a time.

A non-citizen needs an entry permit to work in Eswatini, paid or not. A role that needs one goes through employer of record.

Work out what a salary costs you and what the employee takes home

Take a citizen of Eswatini on SZL 30,000 a month, with no pension scheme of their own.

The provident fund counts pay up to SZL 4,300 a month in 2026, so each side pays 5% of that.

Income tax is worked out after the employee's provident fund contribution comes off, on SZL 29,785 a month here, and then on the year, SZL 357,420. The bands take 20% of the first SZL 100,000, 25% of the next SZL 50,000, 30% of the next SZL 50,000 and 33% of the rest, SZL 99,448.60 in all. The rebate of SZL 8,200 then comes off, and the month's tax is a twelfth of what is left. In effect, no tax is due on a year's income up to SZL 41,000.

A foreign employee does not join the provident fund, so their income tax is worked out on the whole salary.

Income tax is paid with the monthly return by the 7th of the next month. Provident fund contributions are paid within 21 days of the month's end.

Know the leave your people are entitled to

End employment on the law's terms

Notice applies once probation is over and the employee has worked for more than a month. It is at least a week under three months' service, and two days for each completed month from three months to a year. After a year, it is a month plus four days for each completed year after the first. Staff paid monthly get at least a month. An employee with three months' service or more gives at least a week. Either side can pay basic wages instead of notice. During the employer's notice, the employee has 12 hours a week off on full pay to look for work.

Dismissal without notice is only for a reason that warrants ending the relationship at once, where the employer cannot be expected to take any other course.

A termination is fair only for one of the reasons the Act lists, and only where ending the employment was reasonable in all the circumstances. The employer has to prove both. Among the reasons are conduct or performance after a written warning, dishonesty or violence, unauthorised absence and reaching the normal retiring age. A termination for union membership, a complaint made in good faith, or the employee's sex, religion or marital status is unfair. These protections do not cover someone still on probation, someone contracted for fewer than 21 hours a week, or a fixed-term employee whose term has ended.

Severance is ten working days' wages for each completed year beyond the first. It is not owed where the employment ends for certain of the fair reasons the Act lists, such as misconduct after a written warning, dishonesty or violence.

An employer that contemplates making five or more employees redundant gives the Labour Commissioner, and any union it has a collective agreement with, a month's written notice. The notice gives the numbers, the reasons, the expected date, the latest accounts and the alternatives looked at.

A complaint of unfair termination that is not settled goes to the Industrial Court. On request, the employee is given a certificate of employment with the dates and the nature of the work.

See what changed this year, and what is next