PART I-PRELIMINARY

        "employee" means- 
 
          (a) a person who offers It is services under an oral or written contract 
                of employment, whether express or implied; 

          (b) any person, including a tenant share cropper, who performs work 
                or services for another person for remuneration or reward on such 
                terms and conditions that he is in relation to that person  in a 
                position of economic dependence on, and under an obligation 
                to perform duties for, that person more closely resembling the 
                relationship of employee than that of an independent contractor; 
                or 
          (c)  where appropriate, a former employee; 
                          "employer" means- 
 
                (a) any person, body corporate, undertaking, public authority 
                     or body of persons who or which employs an employee and 
                      includes heirs, successors and assignees of the employer; or 
 
                 (b) where appropriate, a former employer; "forced labour" means 
                       any work or service that is exacted from any person under the 
                       threat of any penalty and is not offered voluntarily, but does 
                       not include- 

                     (a) any compulsory military service or work of a purely mili- 
                          tary character; 

                     (b) any work or service that forms part of the normal communal 
                           or civil obligations of citizens of Malawi; 

                     (c) any work or service exacted from a person as a consequence 
                           of a conviction by any court: 

                          Provided the person is not hired by or placed at the disposal 
                          of a private individual, company or association and the work 
                          or service is carried out under the supervision and control of 
                          a public authority; 

                    (d) any work or service exacted in emergency situations where 
                          the life or well being of the whole or part of the population is 
                          endangered, but only to the extent that the requiring of such 
                          labour is reasonably justifiable in the circumstances; or 

                     (e) minor communal services of a kind performed by members 
                          of the community in the direct interest of the community: 
                          Provided that the members of the community have been 
                          consulted concerning the need for such services; "industrial 
                          undertakings" mean- 

                     (a) mines, quarries and other works for the extraction of 
                           minerals; 

                     (b) undertakings in which articles are manufactured, altered, 
                          cleaned, ornamented, finished, adapted for sale, broken up or 
                          demolished, or in which materials are transformed, including 
                          undertakings engaged in food processing, agro-processing 
                          activities, ship building or in the generation, transformation 
                          or transmission of electricity or motive power of any kind; or 

                     (c) undertakings engaged in building and civil engineering 
                          work, including constructional, repair, maintenance, alteration 
                          and demolition work;  "labour officer" includes the 
                          Commissioner, Regional Labour Officer and District Labour 
                          Officer; 
                         "remuneration" means the wage or salary and any additional 
                          benefits, allowances or emoluments whatsoever payable, 
                          directly or indirectly, whether in cash or in kind, by the 
                          employer to the employee and arising out of the employee's 
                          employment; 

                         "wage" means all earnings, however designated or calculated, 
                         capable of being expressed in terms of money and fixed by 
                         mutual agreement or by law, which are payable by virtue 
                         of a written or unwritten contract of employment by an 
                         employer to an employee for work done or to be done or for 
                         service rendered or to be rendered.