Comic Contracts creates legally binding visual contracts for vulnerable people, which reduces contract inequality, improves understanding and aligns mutual expectations.
Robert de Rooy and a team at Jinja Communications have created graphical comic type contracts for workers, to help communicate the employment conditions with the aim to eradicate the misunderstanding the employees might have when seeing or reading the employment contracts.
The traditional approach with contracts is to explain or train, so one can imagine the work hours it takes to help the illiterate understand the contracts before they sign them.
To exercise your rights as a worker, you would need to reference your employment contract and obviously be able to understand it. These graphically-aided comic contracts allow people to see what is expected of them, it also will take the employer a fraction of the time to explain the content of the contract. So, this not only benefits the employee, but also the employer.
Pictures are a universal language, and with the number of languages we have in South Africa, this helps illustrate the content across all languages.
The people sign the comic as a legal binding document, there is no overriding legal text.
Comic Contracts won the IACCM (International Association of Contract and Commercial Management) award in San Diego in 2016. This year at the HiiL Foundation Innovating Justice Boostcamp, Comic Contracts was tie for the runner up award.
Congratulations Rob, this is a brilliant way to ensure all people understand their legal rights, especially when signing documents.
Robert De Rooy Attorneys
Email: robert@derooy.co.za
2nd Floor, Block C,
The Boulevard Office Park,
Searle Street,
Woodstock,
Cape Town
Tel: +27 (21) 4610065
