Employment law
Technical and economic short-time working: suspending without terminating
One Monday morning, the factory transformer burns out. The presses fall silent, workers wait outside the workshops and the supplier quotes a six-week delay. Should the company send them home, pay them to do nothing, or dismiss them? The Labour Code offers a fourth route, temporary short-time working, provided the procedure and above all the time limit are respected.
To follow the rule step by step, take a fictional case: Sotuba Plast, a plastic bag manufacturer in Bamako with 60 employees, 25 of whom work in the extrusion workshop hit by the breakdown.
1. What exactly are we talking about?
Suspension of the contract is a pause: the employee stops working, the employer stops providing work, but the contract still exists. Temporary short-time working is one of the grounds for suspension set by law. Labour Code, article L.34
The employer may place all or part of its workforce on temporary short time, for technical or economic reasons. The Code distinguishes the two causes.
| Technical short time | Economic short time | |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A collective interruption of work due to an accidental cause | The impossibility of keeping staff working normally |
| Examples given by the Code | Equipment failure, power cut, disaster, bad weather | A shortage of work with an economic cause |
| At Sotuba Plast | The transformer burned out | The main customer suspended its orders |
What the label changes
The procedure, duration and effects are the same in both cases. The label changes how the decision is justified. If you cite a breakdown while the workshop is actually idle for lack of orders, your ground is inaccurate and the measure becomes open to challenge.
Technical short time follows a breakdown. Economic short time follows an empty order book. Both follow the same procedure.
2. Before stopping the workshop: two steps, in this order
An employer wishing to place staff on technical or economic short time must first obtain the opinion of the staff delegates, if any, or of the union committee. Staff delegates are employees elected to represent their colleagues before management. Labour Code, article L.35
It must then inform the competent Regional Director of Labour in advance of its decision. This protects employees: the administration can check that the measure rests on a real cause before it takes effect.
The most common mistake
Many companies stop work first and write to the inspectorate a few days later. The text says "in advance": a letter sent after the measure starts does not comply with the law. At Sotuba Plast, the letter goes out on Monday and the measure applies from Tuesday at the earliest.
Another confusion: the text does not make short time subject to authorisation by the inspectorate. It requires an opinion from the representatives and prior notice. The labour inspector’s authorisation concerns the dismissal of a staff delegate, not placing one on short time.
What you need to do
- Consult the staff delegates or union committee in writing and keep their opinion.
- Send the Regional Director of Labour a dated letter, before the effective date, stating the cause, the employees concerned and the planned duration.
- Give each employee concerned the suspension terms in writing.
3. Three months, not a day more
The suspension may not exceed three months. This limit prevents an employer from leaving an employee indefinitely without work or a decision on their future.
Since Law No. 2022-005 of 20 May 2022, there is one exception: in a serious health crisis, the period may be renewed where circumstances require, up to six months in total, including the first three months.
| Situation | Maximum duration |
|---|---|
| General case (breakdown, disaster, drop in activity) | 3 months |
| Serious health crisis | 6 months in total, including the first 3 |
What overrunning costs
Beyond the suspension period, any termination of the contract is attributable to the employer. In practice, it is charged to the employer like a dismissal: notice and severance pay remain due, and damages may be added if the termination is found to be wrongful.
Example. A Sotuba Plast operator, paid monthly, earns XOF 150,000 gross and has 6 years’ seniority. The workshop has not restarted after three months and the contract is terminated. Labour Code, article L.53
Statutory notice (monthly-paid employee, absent a collective agreement): 1 month, i.e. XOF 150,000 Severance pay, first 5 years: 150,000 × 20% × 5 = XOF 150,000 Severance pay, 6th year: 150,000 × 25% × 1 = XOF 37,500 Minimum total: 150,000 + 150,000 + 37,500 = XOF 337,500 per employee For 25 employees in the same situation: 337,500 × 25 = XOF 8,437,500
Short-time working is not a waiting room. It is a three-month countdown.
What you need to do
- Enter the end date of the three months in management’s diary from day one.
- Prepare the exit in parallel: restart, redeployment or economic redundancy procedure.
- In an epidemic, check that the situation really is a serious health crisis before extending.
4. The proposed terms: what the employee may refuse
The Code sets no compensation scale during temporary short time. It refers to the suspension terms proposed by the employer: partial pay, advances, benefits retained. Also check the applicable collective agreement, which may provide more.
The employee may refuse these terms. In that case, any termination of the contract is, again, attributable to the employer. Poor terms do not push the employee out at their own expense: they shift the cost of termination onto the company.
The reasoning that does not hold
"If he doesn’t accept, he resigns." Wrong. Refusing the terms is not a resignation, and resignation is never presumed: the employee must notify it in writing.
What you need to do
- Set out the proposed terms in a document signed or acknowledged by each employee.
- Compare those terms with the collective agreement before proposing them.
5. During the pause: what is forbidden, what continues
The ground that collapses
During technical or economic short time, the employer may not hire new workers, except in unaffected sectors. Remaining staff may, however, work overtime. Hiring in the idle workshop contradicts the ground relied on: if Sotuba Plast recruits two extruder operators during the breakdown, the measure loses its justification.
Seniority keeps running
Periods of technical or economic short time count towards seniority. An employee on short time for three months loses nothing on their seniority bonus or on the calculation of future payments.
Making up hours after a short interruption
If the breakdown lasts only a few days, another option exists: making up lost hours. Hours lost through equipment failure, a power cut or bad weather may be recovered by extending the working day. These hours are paid at the normal rate, without any premium. Labour Code, article L.134
Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996 frames this: one extra hour per day at most, within a period linked to the number of days lost, and notice to the labour inspector. If the stoppage exceeds one week, making up hours beyond those periods requires the inspector’s authorisation.
What you need to do
- Freeze all hiring in the idle scope during the suspension.
- For a breakdown of less than a week, consider making up hours before resorting to short time.
6. When activity does not restart: economic redundancy
An economic redundancy is a dismissal that is not linked to the employee as a person but to a job being abolished or transformed because of economic difficulties or technological change. Short-time working is in fact one of the solutions the employer must explore with the delegates to avoid it.
If redundancies become necessary, the order of departures follows three basic criteria: voluntary departures, professional aptitude and family responsibilities. The list is sent in writing to the delegates, who are convened within eight days; the list and the minutes are then sent to the labour inspector. Labour Code, article L.48
Each dismissed employee receives, in addition to notice and severance pay, a special payment equal to one month’s gross salary, which is tax-free. They also enjoy a two-year priority for re-hiring. In a dispute, the employer must prove the economic ground and compliance with the order of redundancies.
The mistake imported from French law
Many guides in circulation mention an individual "preliminary interview" before an economic redundancy. This step comes from French law. The Malian Code provides for consultation of the delegates and notice to the inspector, not a mandatory preliminary interview. Likewise, seniority is not a basic criterion: it serves as a tie-breaker, where professional value is equal, under Order No. 2024-4363/MTFPDS-SG of 27 December 2024.
What you need to do
- Consult the delegates on job-saving solutions before any redundancy.
- Draw up the list according to voluntary departures, professional aptitude and family responsibilities, and send it to them in writing.
- Budget, for each employee, notice, severance pay and the special payment of one month’s gross salary.
A closer look: the 2022 reform
Law No. 2022-005 of 20 May 2022 amended article L.35 after the Covid-19 crisis. It added the definition of the two forms of short time and the option of extending the suspension to six months in a serious health crisis. Outside a health crisis, the three-month limit remains in full.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Label the cause correctly: accident or bad weather for technical short time, shortage of work for economic short time.
- Obtain the opinion of the staff delegates or union committee before acting.
- Inform the Regional Director of Labour before the measure starts, never after.
- Never exceed three months, or six months in total in a serious health crisis: beyond that, termination is attributable to the employer.
- Hire no one in the idle scope during the suspension.
- Prepare the restart or the economic redundancy procedure from day one.