Which documents must the employer display in the workplace?

Monday, 6:45 a.m., at the gate of Sirakoro Emballages. The morning shift walks past an almost empty corkboard: a canteen notice, last year’s calendar. The labour inspector due on Thursday will not look at the canteen: he will look for the internal rules, the wage rates, the fire instructions, the INPS poster. Each missing document costs a fine, and sometimes a lost dispute.

1. What exactly are we talking about?

Sirakoro Emballages is a fictitious plastic packaging manufacturer with 68 employees in the Bamako industrial zone: its name and situation are used purely as an example.

Mandatory display means placing certain documents where workers can read them without asking anyone. Why? Because an employee cannot enforce a rule they do not know, and because the labour inspector must be able to check at a glance that the company informs its staff.

The Labour Code, its implementing texts and the Social Security Code require six main displays.

Document	Where to display it	Legal basis
Internal rules (industrial, commercial and agricultural businesses with 10 or more employees)	Hiring premises and workplaces	Labour Code, L.62 and L.67
Minimum wage rates and terms of task or piece-rate work	Employer’s office and places where wages are paid	Labour Code, L.99
INPS poster on occupational accidents and diseases	Every workshop, site or workplace	Social Security Code, art. 70
Fire instructions (more than 50 people, or highly flammable materials)	Every work room	Decree No. 96-178, art. D.170-26
No-smoking notice (first-group flammable materials)	In the rooms concerned	Decree No. 96-178, art. D.170-18
Emergency exit signs	Along the way to the exits	Decree No. 96-178, art. D.170-23

“A rule no one can read is a rule no one follows.”

2. Internal rules: displayed, legible, up to date

Once approved by the labour inspector, the internal rules are communicated to the staff delegates, then displayed in the hiring premises and workplaces, in a suitable and easily accessible place. They must be kept legible at all times (Labour Code, article L.67). They take effect twenty days after approval (article L.68).

At Sirakoro, the plant has three buildings and an entrance where hiring takes place. A single copy pinned up in the workshop manager’s office is not enough: one is needed at the entrance and one in every workplace the staff pass through.

The day you discipline an employee on the basis of the rules, you will have to show that they could have known them. Display is the simplest proof. On the content and procedure of internal rules, see Law, agreements, internal rules, contract: which rule prevails? and our article Internal rules.

The most common mistake

Displaying the draft, or an old version, instead of the approved text. Only the rules bearing the inspectorate’s approval and stamp are authoritative (article L.68).

What you need to do

• Display the approved version of the internal rules at the entrance and in every workplace.
• Replace any damaged or illegible copy.
• Remove old versions as soon as a new one takes effect.

3. Wages: what the Code wants to see on the wall

Minimum wage rates, as well as the terms of pay for task or piece-rate work, are displayed in the employer’s office and where staff are paid (Labour Code, article L.99). Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996 repeats the same rule (article A.109.3). See Piece-rate and task-based pay.

In practice, this means the minimum wages applicable in the company: the statutory minimum wage and, if a collective agreement binds you, its pay scale by category. To find out which, see Which collective agreement applies to my company?

Why this rule? An employee who sees the scale can check on their own that their pay meets the minimum for their category. It also protects the employer acting in good faith: gaps are spotted early, before they turn into three years of back pay.

What forgetting costs

Breach of article L.99 is punishable by a fine of 20,000 to 50,000 XOF and imprisonment of 15 days to 3 months, or one of these two penalties (Labour Code, article L.319).

The most common mistake

Displaying only the statutory minimum wage when a collective agreement provides higher minimums by category. It is the scale that actually applies that must be visible.

What you need to do

• Display the applicable minimum pay scale, by category, in the payroll office and where wages are paid.
• Display how task or piece-rate work is calculated, if you use it.
• Update the display at every pay increase.

4. Health and safety: the notices that protect

Every workshop, site or workplace must carry a poster produced by INPS informing workers of the rules on occupational accidents and diseases (Social Security Code, article 70). INPS supplies this template: you only need to ask for it.

Above fifty people present, or as soon as first-group flammable materials are handled, fire instructions must be displayed prominently in every work room (Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, article D.170-26). Sirakoro, with 68 employees and solvent-based inks, is covered twice over. The instructions must state:

• the fire-fighting and rescue equipment in or near the room;
• the staff responsible for operating it;
• the people responsible for directing evacuation;
• the people responsible for alerting the fire brigade;
• in very large characters, the fire brigade’s address and telephone number.

They remind everyone that anyone who spots the start of a fire must raise the alarm. Drills and equipment tests take place at least every three months and are recorded in a register kept available for the inspector (same article).

Two further signs complete the set: a no-smoking notice, in very visible characters or as a symbol, in rooms where first-group flammable materials are stored or handled (article D.170-18), and signs showing the emergency exits and the way to the nearest exit (article D.170-23).

What forgetting costs

Breaches of the health and safety decrees are punishable by a fine of 20,000 to 100,000 XOF; for a repeat offence, 100,000 to 200,000 XOF and imprisonment of 6 to 12 months (article L.326). And on the day of a fire, missing instructions will be hard to justify.

What you need to do

• Ask INPS for its occupational accident poster and put it up in every workshop or site.
• Draw up fire instructions room by room, with the names of those responsible and the fire brigade’s number.
• Hold a drill every three months and record it in the register.

5. The delegates’ and the union’s noticeboards

Staff delegates may display the information they are responsible for bringing to the staff’s attention. The employer must provide spaces at the entrances to workplaces and spaces reserved for union communications, in a visible place, preferably where staff pass (Labour Code, article L.273). The union committee has freedom to display professional communications (article L.262).

At delegate elections, the employer does the posting: the notice setting the date, place and hours of the vote, at least fifteen days beforehand, then the lists of candidates, at least three days beforehand (Order No. 1566 of 7 October 1996, article A.267.9).

The most common mistake

Removing a delegates’ notice because you dislike it. Their notices must stay within their remit, but in case of disagreement it is better to discuss it with them or refer the matter to the inspector than to tear the document down: interfering with the proper exercise of a delegate’s duties is punishable by a fine of 100,000 to 500,000 XOF and imprisonment of one month to one year, or one of these two penalties (article L.331).

What you need to do

• Install noticeboards reserved for delegates and the union, at entrances and where staff pass.
• Post the election notice and the candidate lists yourself, on time, at every election.

A closer look: what not to display, and the French notices

Some notices are prohibited, or required from someone other than you. Three points to remember.

• Job offers by poster. They may only be advertised by poster or other publicity on the premises of placement bodies; the press remains permitted, provided the employer’s name or company name and address are stated (Labour Code, article L.307). A “We’re hiring” sign at the gate is therefore not compliant.
• The labour contractor’s notice. On your sites, the tâcheron must permanently display his status as a tâcheron and the name, address and profession of the business he works for (article L.93). Check it: this is what lets his workers know who to turn to if their wages are not paid.
• Notices required in France. Much of the content in circulation copies the French list: collective working hours, contact details of the labour inspectorate and occupational doctor, notice on the collective agreement, texts on equality and harassment. The Malian Labour Code and the implementing texts consulted do not require them. Displaying them remains good practice, not a legal obligation.

Key takeaways in 6 points

1. Display the approved version of the internal rules at the entrance and in every workplace, and keep it legible.
2. Display the minimum pay scale that actually applies in the office and where wages are paid.
3. Put up the INPS occupational accident poster in every workshop or site.
4. Place fire instructions in every room from 50 people or where highly flammable materials are present.
5. Reserve noticeboards for the delegates and the union, and never tear down their notices.
6. Never recruit with a sign at the gate: go through a placement body or the press.