Employment Rights and Worker Protection Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends HR Managers, Employee Relations Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-LR-024

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in HR, employee relations, compliance, procurement, operations or people management.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Employment rights failures often arise where employment arrangements are least visible: agency labour, migrant recruitment, outsourced services, platform work, temporary contracts and informal reporting channels. HR and labour relations professionals must identify whether workers receive lawful pay, working time protections, equal treatment, freedom of association and protection from retaliation. They must also act quickly where forced labour, trafficking, child labour, harassment or wage theft indicators emerge. Poor controls can expose employers to claims, regulatory scrutiny, contract loss, industrial disputes and serious harm to workers.

This course examines the rights and protections affecting workers at heightened risk of exploitation or exclusion. Participants assess employment status, classify worker relationships, review wage and working-time records, identify discrimination risks and examine recruitment practices. The programme also covers migrant worker protections, agency and contractor arrangements, union rights, grievance mechanisms, investigations, safeguarding and supplier labour standards. Participants learn to distinguish policy concerns from legal risks, gather reliable evidence and select proportionate remedial actions.

Instructor-led teaching combines concise legal and technical briefings with realistic case analysis, document review, group discussions, investigation simulations and application planning. Cases reflect common issues in banks, public bodies, manufacturers, NGOs, construction projects, hospitality operations and multinational supply chains. Participants leave with a worker-protection control pack containing assessment tools, investigation materials, supplier due diligence prompts and a 90-day improvement plan.

The course is suited to HR, employee relations, compliance, procurement and operational leaders who influence employment conditions directly or through labour suppliers. It is designed for professionals who need practical controls and defensible decision-making rather than specialist legal advice.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess employment status using control, integration, mutuality and economic-dependence tests
  • Apply discrimination and reasonable-accommodation tests to employment decisions
  • Calculate wage, overtime and deduction risks from payroll and timesheet records
  • Conduct migrant-worker and recruitment-agent due diligence using ethical recruitment controls
  • Design grievance mechanisms using UN Guiding Principles effectiveness criteria
  • Lead proportionate workplace investigations using evidence plans and findings matrices
  • Identify forced labour, trafficking, child labour and retaliation indicators
  • Build a worker-protection action plan with controls, owners, deadlines and evidence

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Make better decisions when worker status or contractual arrangements are unclear
  • Recognise exploitation indicators before concerns become formal claims or public incidents
  • Handle worker complaints with clearer evidence, documentation and confidentiality controls
  • Challenge unsafe recruitment and labour-supply practices with recognised standards
  • Present practical remediation recommendations to managers, suppliers and senior leaders

For your organisation

  • Reduce exposure to wage claims, discrimination disputes and worker misclassification
  • Strengthen controls over agency labour, recruitment agents and outsourced workforces
  • Improve early reporting and response to retaliation, harassment and exploitation concerns
  • Create stronger evidence for supplier reviews, client audits and regulatory enquiries
  • Support fair treatment, retention and trust among vulnerable worker groups

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can assess worker status and identify the protections attached to each relationship.

  • Worker-status tests distinguishing employees, workers, contractors, agency staff and interns
  • Contractual labels tested against control, integration, mutuality and economic dependence
  • Employment relationship indicators under ILO Recommendation No. 198
  • Records required to substantiate hours, pay, status and work allocation
  • Misclassification risks in platform work, outsourcing and temporary labour arrangements
  • Jurisdictional legal hierarchy: statute, regulation, collective agreement, contract and policy

Participants can identify discriminatory practices and support fair, evidence-based employment decisions.

  • Protected characteristics, direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation tests
  • Burden-of-proof analysis using comparator, provision criterion practice, and causation evidence
  • Reasonable accommodation assessment: barrier, adjustment, effectiveness, cost and consultation
  • Pregnancy, maternity and family-responsibility protections in recruitment and workforce decisions
  • Pay-equity reviews using job evaluation, comparator groups and objective justification
  • Documenting legitimate decisions without discriminatory stereotypes or retaliatory language

Participants can review pay and working conditions for wage abuse and forced labour risks.

  • Minimum-wage, overtime, premium-pay and lawful-deduction calculations from timesheet data
  • Payslip reconciliation against hours, rates, allowances, deductions and net pay
  • Working-time controls covering rest breaks, maximum hours and weekly rest
  • Recruitment-fee prohibition and debt-bondage indicators affecting migrant workers
  • Passport retention, wage withholding and restricted movement as forced-labour indicators
  • ILO Forced Labour Indicators applied to recruitment and workplace evidence

Participants can assess recruitment pathways and protect migrant workers from exploitation.

  • Right-to-work verification without nationality discrimination or excessive document retention
  • Recruitment-agent due diligence using contracts, fee disclosures and worker interviews
  • Language-access arrangements for contracts, safety instructions, grievance channels and training
  • Cross-border recruitment maps tracing fees, intermediaries, transport and accommodation
  • Ethical Recruitment principles applied to employer and agent accountability
  • Safe reporting routes for undocumented or dependent-status workers

Participants can manage rights risks arising from non-standard and outsourced work arrangements.

  • Agency-worker rights: equal treatment, assignment records and host-employer responsibilities
  • Joint-employment analysis across client, contractor, franchise and labour-supply arrangements
  • Zero-hours scheduling risks, cancellation pay and predictable-work protections
  • Platform-worker classification evidence drawn from algorithmic control and pricing rules
  • Contractor onboarding controls covering licences, insurance, payroll and worker lists
  • Supply-chain labour clauses aligned with ILO core labour standards

Participants can establish reporting and consultation arrangements that protect worker voice.

  • Freedom-of-association protections, union access and anti-union retaliation indicators
  • Collective-bargaining obligations, good-faith consultation and bargaining-unit recognition
  • Worker representative consultation during restructuring, transfers and major workplace changes
  • Grievance mechanism design against UN Guiding Principles effectiveness criteria
  • Anonymous reporting channels, confidentiality limits and informed-consent communications
  • Non-retaliation controls: allegation logging, interim protection and manager instructions

Participants can plan and conduct fair investigations into worker rights allegations.

  • Intake triage separating urgent safety, retaliation, wage and discrimination allegations
  • Investigation plans defining scope, witnesses, documents, chronology and decision authority
  • Trauma-informed interviewing techniques for harassment, exploitation and coercion reports
  • Evidence preservation through document holds, access controls and interview notes
  • Findings matrices linking allegations, evidence, standard of proof and conclusions
  • Remedy decisions covering reinstatement, back pay, protection and disciplinary action

Participants can recognise serious exploitation concerns and activate appropriate safeguarding responses.

  • Child-labour age-verification controls and hazardous-work restrictions
  • Young-worker safeguards for hours, night work, supervision and training
  • Modern slavery risk assessment using worker vulnerability and control indicators
  • Human-trafficking response protocol: immediate safety, referral and evidence preservation
  • Safeguarding boundaries when interviewing minors and survivors of exploitation
  • Referral pathways involving medical, legal, shelter and specialist services

Participants can assess supplier labour risks and monitor corrective actions effectively.

  • Worker-rights risk register scored by severity, likelihood, control and owner
  • Site assessments combining records review, worker interviews and physical observation
  • SMETA labour standards used to structure supplier assessment questions
  • Corrective action plans with root cause, action, owner, deadline and evidence
  • Escalation thresholds for serious allegations, regulatory reporting and contract suspension
  • Supplier remediation monitoring through milestones, worker feedback and closure criteria

Participants can prioritise practical worker-protection improvements for their own responsibilities.

  • Fact-pattern analysis identifying status, discrimination, wage and forced-labour issues
  • Legal issue trees separating confirmed facts, assumptions, evidence gaps and actions
  • Response playbooks assigning immediate safeguards, investigation steps and accountable owners
  • Manager briefings explaining rights, confidentiality, non-retaliation and escalation duties
  • 90-day worker-protection plan prioritising controls, communications, metrics and reviews
  • Personal application commitments linked to current workforce and supplier risks

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Employment status assessment checklist
  2. Worker rights risk register
  3. Ethical recruitment due diligence template
  4. Grievance mechanism design checklist
  5. Workplace investigation plan and findings matrix
  6. 90-day worker-protection action plan

Who should attend

  • HR Managers — responsible for fair employment policies, employee cases and workforce controls
  • Employee Relations Specialists — handling grievances, disciplinary matters and union relationships
  • HR Business Partners — advising managers on sensitive worker rights decisions
  • Compliance Managers — overseeing labour risk, reporting obligations and remediation controls
  • Procurement and Supply Chain Managers — managing labour standards among contractors and suppliers
  • Operations Managers — supervising temporary, agency, migrant or outsourced workforces

Skills and tools covered

Employment status assessmentWorker rights complianceEthical recruitment controlsWorkplace investigationsGrievance mechanism designSupplier labour due diligence

Tools and standards

ILO Recommendation No. 198, ILO Forced Labour Indicators, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, SMETA Labour Standards

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish legal principles, international labour standards and decision frameworks. Participants analyse contracts, payroll extracts, grievance records, recruitment documents and supplier scenarios. Small-group case work tests responses to discrimination, forced labour indicators, retaliation allegations and contractor failures. Investigation simulations develop interviewing, evidence assessment and remedy decisions. Facilitated discussions compare organisational controls, while individual application planning translates learning into workplace actions, owners, measures and review dates.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in HR, employee relations, compliance, procurement, operations or people management. Familiarity with employment contracts, workplace policies, basic grievance handling and organisational reporting lines is useful. Participants should be able to read payroll records, contracts and policy documents and discuss workplace scenarios professionally. No law degree, prior investigation qualification, union negotiation experience or specialist human rights training is required. The course explains internationally recognised standards while noting that local legal duties vary by jurisdiction.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have practical exposure to HR, people management, compliance, procurement or operations. You do not need a law degree or specialist human rights qualification, but familiarity with workplace policies and employment documents is helpful.

Bring examples of non-confidential policies, process questions or workforce arrangements that you want to improve. You may also bring a laptop or tablet for notes and application planning, although course materials are provided.

The course suits professionals responsible for employment conditions, worker complaints, labour suppliers, contractor management or workplace compliance. It is particularly relevant where organisations use migrant, agency, temporary, outsourced or platform workers.

General employment law courses commonly focus on contracts, dismissal and routine employee relations matters. This course concentrates on workers facing heightened vulnerability, including recruitment abuse, wage exploitation, retaliation, forced labour indicators and supply-chain labour risks.

You can use the templates to assess worker status, review recruitment agents, improve reporting routes and investigate concerns. The 90-day action plan helps you assign owners, deadlines and evidence for priority controls.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day, with about 6.5 contact hours daily. The five days cover ten teaching modules, using briefings, case work, document analysis, simulations, discussion and application planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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