Employment law
Protective equipment on construction sites in Mali
Seven in the morning on the site of a four-storey building in Kalaban Coura. The concrete mixer turns, cement dust sticks to the skin, and on the second floor a steel fixer walks along a plank, his helmet hanging on the fence. A bucket of mortar slides off the deck, and nothing stops its fall. That morning, the site manager realises that a helmet left on the ground protects no one, and that the law will hold him responsible for what happens under his scaffolding.
Throughout this article, we follow Bâtir Sahel SARL, a Bamako building company with 38 workers. The name is fictitious and used only as an example.
1. The legal framework: which texts govern protective equipment on a site?
Before buying a single helmet, Bâtir Sahel wants to know where its obligations are written. They are not in a single text: the Code sets the principle, the decrees detail the measures, and the Social Security Code deals with the aftermath of an accident.
- Labour Code (Law No. 92-020 of 23 September 1992, as amended), articles L.170 to L.176: it subjects all establishments to health and safety rules and makes the employer responsible for applying them (Labour Code, article L.172). Articles L.62 to L.69 govern the internal rules and prohibit fines; articles L.326 and L.335 set the penalties.
- Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, articles D.170-1 to D.170-48: it sets the general protective measures for all establishments, including masks, safety belts, guardrails and machine guarding.
- Decree No. 07-375/P-RM of 26 September 2007: it sets the specific health and safety measures for building work, public works and other work on buildings. It is the text dedicated to construction sites.
- Order No. 96-1566 of 7 October 1996, articles A.174.1 to A.174.5: it sets the minimum deadlines of the labour inspector's formal notice and the employer's appeal procedure.
- Social Security Code, articles 67, 68 and 71: it organises the reporting of work accidents and increases the employer's burden in case of inexcusable fault.
Other texts complete this framework. The internal rules, mandatory from ten employees, can require the wearing of equipment and provide for sanctions. Decree No. 96-178 bans certain work for young workers, for example suspended scaffolding before 16 (article D.189-29).
Finally, your sector's collective agreement, a written agreement between workers' unions and employers that sets working conditions (article L.70), may add rules. The "Building, Public Works and related activities" agreement refers to the law for health and safety (article 66) but sets the scale of sanctions (article 19). The March 2010 agreement for mining, geological and hydrogeological companies expressly makes the employer responsible for supplying PPE (article 66). Section 7 compares them.
The most common mistake
Looking in the Labour Code for a list of helmets, gloves and shoes. The Code contains none: it leaves that detail to the decrees (article L.171). Anyone who stops at the Code believes they have no precise obligation, whereas the decrees set several.
“The Code sets the principle; the decrees set the equipment.”
2. What exactly are we talking about? Collective and personal protection
On Bâtir Sahel's site, there are two answers to the risk of falling from the scaffolding: install a guardrail along the deck, or give each worker a harness. The two answers are not equal.
Personal protective equipment, or PPE, is equipment the worker wears to protect himself from a risk: helmet, mask, gloves, safety shoes, harness. Collective protection protects everyone in the area without them having to do anything: guardrails, dust extraction, a guard on a machine.
| Criterion | Collective protection | Personal protection (PPE) |
|---|---|---|
| Who is protected | Anyone present in the area | Only the person wearing the equipment |
| Depends on the worker's action | No | Yes: it must be worn, and worn correctly |
| Example provided by the texts | 90 cm guardrails on scaffolding (D.170-27) | Mask if dust cannot be extracted (D.170-4) |
Why the decree starts with collective protection
Decree No. 96-178 deals first with the source of the danger. Dust and gases must be removed as they are produced; masks come in only if the labour inspector recognises that removal is impossible (article D.170-4). This logic protects the worker even on the day he forgets his equipment. For an overview of prevention, read our article Safety at work.
The most common mistake
Handing out harnesses to avoid installing guardrails. Scaffolding, walkways and raised platforms must have strong rigid railings 90 centimetres high (article D.170-27). PPE adds to this protection; it does not replace it. A fall-arrest safety harness is personal protective equipment (PPE) designed to protect workers against the risk of falling from height.
Key point: a harness alone is not enough to protect against falls. It must be part of a complete fall-arrest system, suited to the work being done, with an appropriate anchorage.
On construction sites, the harness is used especially for work at height, on roofs, scaffolding and steel structures.
It is generally made up of:
- Straps: they go around the shoulders, chest and thighs.
- Adjustment buckles: they fit the harness to the body.
- Attachment points: they connect the harness to a fall-arrest system.
- Lanyard with energy absorber: it limits the forces on the body during a fall.
- Connectors and anchorage: they provide the link to a strong fixing point.
“The guardrail protects everyone; the harness protects only the person who clips it on.”
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3. What the texts require by name, and what they leave to your judgement
Bâtir Sahel's site manager is preparing his shopping list. He wants to separate what the law expressly names from what is a matter of prudence.
What Decree No. 96-178 names
| Situation on site | What the text requires | Article |
|---|---|---|
| Dust or gases that cannot be extracted | Suitable masks and protective devices, maintained and disinfected before being given to another worker | D.170-4 |
| Work in a well, pit, duct or tank that may contain gases | Worker attached by a safety belt | D.170-30 |
| Work near machines | Close-fitting, non-loose clothing | D.170-40 |
| Scaffolding, walkways, platforms | Rigid 90 cm railings (collective protection) | D.170-27 |
| Changing clothes to work | Changing rooms with individual lockers, from ten workers | D.170-11 and D.170-12 |
What it does not name: helmet, shoes, gloves, goggles
The general decree names neither the helmet, nor safety shoes, nor gloves, nor goggles. Site-specific measures fall under Decree No. 07-375 of 26 September 2007. Its full text is not published online to date: ask your local labour inspectorate or the National Labour Directorate for it, and keep a copy in the site office.
The inspector's safety net
Equipment missing from the texts is not optional for all that. When a danger is covered by no decree, the labour inspector can give the employer formal notice to remedy it; in an emergency, he can order work to stop immediately until the measures are taken (Labour Code, article L.175). The hours lost are then paid as actual work.
A formal notice is a written order from the inspector that describes the breach or danger and sets a deadline to end it.
Practical benchmarks, not a legal list
The table below lists the equipment that practice associates with the main site risks. It cites no article: it is a purchasing aid, to be checked against Decree No. 07-375 and the labour inspectorate's instructions.
| Risk | Usual equipment |
|---|---|
| Falling objects, head impacts | Site helmet |
| Crushing, nails, rubble | Safety shoes or boots |
| Cement, steel bars, sharp tools | Gloves suited to the task |
| Projections, grinding, welding | Goggles or face shield |
| Noise from machinery and jackhammers | Earplugs or ear defenders |
| Work at height where no guardrail is possible | Harness attached to an anchor point |
The most common mistake
Reasoning "no text, no obligation". Article L.175 allows the inspector to require protection that no decree names. Another widespread mistake: requiring "CE marking". That requirement comes from European law; the Malian decree requires the effectiveness of protective devices to be officially recognised and accepts without formality those approved abroad (article D.170-47).
“Equipment missing from the text is never permission to work without it.”
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4. Supplying, maintaining, replacing: a cost that stays with the employer
End of the month at Bâtir Sahel. The accountant suggests deducting the price of the safety shoes handed out from the payroll: "they are the ones wearing them". The proposal is illegal.
Why the employer pays
The employer is responsible for applying safety measures (article L.172). The decree also makes it responsible for maintenance: it keeps masks in good condition and disinfects them before handing them to another worker (article D.170-4). The rule protects the employee's health from cost-cutting: equipment paid for by the worker is equipment he hesitates to replace.
Deductions from wages are prohibited
A wage deduction is an amount the employer subtracts from the wage before paying it. The law lists them: taxes and social contributions, repayment of housing or food supplied, payments provided for by the collective agreement, attachments and voluntary assignments. No other deduction is allowed (Labour Code, article L.121). The price of PPE falls into none of these categories.
The employee can claim back the sums deducted for three years (article L.118). The employer also faces a fine of XOF 10,000 to 18,000, applied as many times as there are offences (articles L.321 and L.335).
Example. Bâtir Sahel deducts XOF 7,500 from each of the 30 workers given safety shoes.
Amounts to refund: 30 × 7,500 = XOF 225,000
Minimum fine: 30 × 10,000 = XOF 300,000
Maximum fine: 30 × 18,000 = XOF 540,000
Total cost: XOF 525,000 to 765,000, for a saving of XOF 225,000 that was never allowed.
Lost or damaged equipment
A worker who destroys his helmet through his own fault may have to make good the damage. Even then, offsetting against the wage is only possible within the attachable portion (article L.123). To calculate that limit, read our article Assignable and attachable portion of wages.
Those who watch over safety with you
Staff delegates, representatives elected in any establishment with more than ten workers, ensure that health and safety rules are applied (articles L.265 and L.278). A health and safety committee is mandatory in industrial establishments with at least 50 employees; the inspector can impose one below that threshold when the work involves particular hazards (article L.280). With 38 workers, Bâtir Sahel is below the threshold, but a site with work at height may fall into this case. Read Health and safety committee: from what headcount?.
“Protective equipment is a work tool, not an expense for the employee.”
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5. The employee who refuses to wear his helmet: sanction without making him pay
Moussa, a steel fixer at Bâtir Sahel, takes off his helmet as soon as the site manager walks away: "it's too hot". The team leader suggests a XOF 2,000 fine for each lapse. That is the worst possible answer.
Fines are prohibited, even for a good cause
The employer is prohibited from imposing fines (Labour Code, article L.69). The rule protects the wage, which people live on, from deductions decided by the employer alone. An employer who ignores it faces a fine of XOF 20,000 to 100,000; for a repeat offence, meaning a new offence after a conviction, the fine rises to XOF 40,000 to 200,000 and a prison term of 15 days to 3 months may be added (article L.318).
Example. The team leader fined 6 workers XOF 2,000 each.
Amounts to return: 6 × 2,000 = XOF 12,000
Fine faced by the company, minimum: 6 × 20,000 = XOF 120,000
Fine faced by the company, maximum: 6 × 100,000 = XOF 600,000
The disciplinary route
Refusing to wear equipment supplied remains misconduct that you can sanction. The internal rules, a document written by the employer and mandatory in companies with at least ten employees, may contain health and safety requirements (articles L.62 and L.64). Include mandatory PPE and the scale of sanctions. Read our article on internal rules.
Graduate your response by following the scale in your collective agreement. The construction agreement provides for a verbal or written warning, a suspension of one to three days, then of four to eight days, and finally dismissal (article 19). A disciplinary suspension can never exceed eight days in any case (article L.34).
The same agreement sets the procedure: the employee first gives his explanation, assisted by his delegate if he wishes; the sanction is then notified to him in writing, with a copy to the labour inspector. A warning or a one-to-three-day suspension can no longer be relied on after six months without a new sanction; a four-to-eight-day suspension, after one year.
Dismissing a repeat offender remains possible if it rests on a legitimate reason you can prove (article L.51). Check, however, that the past sanctions you rely on have not lapsed.
Gross misconduct, not "serious misconduct"
Many model rules refer to "serious misconduct" (faute grave), a French-law concept. The Malian Code uses gross misconduct (faute lourde), which allows termination without notice; its seriousness is assessed by the judge (article L.41). An isolated refusal to wear a helmet does not automatically amount to it.
The employee's refusal does not shield you
If Moussa is injured without his helmet, the accident remains a work accident. The Social Security Code only allows the INPS to ask the court to reduce the annuity when the victim's fault is inexcusable (article 67). You remain responsible for applying safety measures (article L.172).
“You sanction the refusal; you do not make him pay for it.”
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6. Inspection and accident: what it costs to miss the rule
One Tuesday morning, the labour inspector visits Bâtir Sahel's site. Three workers are going down into the soakaway being dug, without safety belts.
First, the formal notice
Before drawing up an official report (procès-verbal), meaning the document that formally records the offence and opens prosecution, the inspector must issue a written formal notice. It is entered in the third part of the employer's register or sent by registered letter, and sets a deadline for compliance (Labour Code, article L.174).
Order No. 96-1566 sets minimum deadlines by sector: 7 days for commerce, 15 days for transport, 30 days for industry (article A.174.1). Construction is not named. If you consider the deadline unrealistic, you can refer the matter to the National Labour Director before it expires; your appeal suspends the deadline (articles A.174.2 and A.174.3). When it expires, if nothing has changed, the inspector draws up an official report (article A.174.5).
Then the fines
Breaches of the safety decrees are punished by a fine of XOF 20,000 to 100,000. For a repeat offence within twelve months, the fine rises to XOF 100,000 to 200,000, with 6 to 12 months' imprisonment (Labour Code, article L.326; article L.336). The fine is due as many times as there are offences, in particular when several workers are exposed, up to fifty times the maximum (article L.335). The head of the company is civilly liable for convictions handed down against his site manager (article L.337).
Example. Formal notice not complied with: three workers without safety belts in the soakaway (article D.170-30).
First conviction, minimum: 3 × 20,000 = XOF 60,000
First conviction, maximum: 3 × 100,000 = XOF 300,000
Repeat offence: from 3 × 100,000 = XOF 300,000 to 3 × 200,000 = XOF 600,000, plus 6 to 12 months' imprisonment
Legal cap on fines: 50 × 100,000 = XOF 5,000,000
Next, if the accident happens
Every work accident must be reported within 48 hours to the INPS and the labour inspectorate (article L.176; Social Security Code, article 71). Failure to do so is punished by a fine of XOF 20,000 to 100,000 (Social Security Code, article 240). Read Work accidents: mistakes to avoid.
The heaviest cost comes from the employer's inexcusable fault. The Social Security Code does not define it: the labour court assesses it, and letting people work without the protection required by the texts exposes you directly to it. The victim's benefits are then increased; the INPS pays them and recovers them from the employer through an additional contribution. No insurance may cover this risk, and the person at fault is liable with his personal assets (Social Security Code, article 68).
A "right to withdraw"? Not in the Malian Code
Imported documents mention the "right to withdraw" (droit de retrait), which in France lets an employee leave a dangerous workstation on his own initiative. The Malian Labour Code does not provide for this mechanism. In Mali, stopping dangerous work is ordered by the labour inspector (article L.175), and an employer who disputes it appeals to the National Labour Director.
“The formal notice is a warning; the official report is a bill.”
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7. Construction or mining: what the collective agreements add
Bâtir Sahel wins civil engineering work on a gold mine. On site, two collective agreements seem possible: the construction one and the mining one. The site manager wants to know which one applies to his workers.
The agreement follows the employer's main activity
A collective agreement binds the employers who signed it or who are members of a signatory organisation (article L.77). An extension decree can make it mandatory for all employers within its scope (article L.82). Each agreement defines that scope by the company's main activity: building, public works, building materials and their extraction for one (article 1); prospecting, research, mining and ore processing for the other (articles 1 and 2).
Bâtir Sahel therefore remains in construction, even on a mine. To find out which one concerns you, read Which collective agreement applies to my company?.
Two agreements, two levels of detail
| Point | Construction agreement | Mining agreement (March 2010) |
|---|---|---|
| Protective equipment | Refers to the law (article 66) | Supplied by the employer at intervals set by management; replaced in case of deterioration or justified loss (article 66, paragraph 3) |
| Worker's obligations | Not detailed | Use PPE correctly, follow instructions, report any danger and any accident (article 66, paragraph 9) |
| Health and safety committee | Refers to the law | Meets at least once a month; monthly briefing of staff on the use of PPE (article 20) |
| Sanctions | Warning, suspension of 1 to 3 days, then 4 to 8 days, dismissal (article 19) | Verbal or written warning, suspension of 1 to 8 days, dismissal; fines prohibited (article 28) |
The mining health and safety committee therefore meets every month, whereas Decree No. 96-178 only requires one meeting per quarter (article D.282-5). This rule, more favourable to workers, binds the companies covered by the agreement (articles L.70 and L.77).
On a mine, your teams also follow the site's instructions
The mining agreement makes the entry of any outsider subject to the authorisation of the works manager. Anyone admitted must follow the safety instructions given to him (article 66, paragraph 7). The mining company can therefore require its own level of equipment from your workers; you, as their employer, supply it (article L.172).
The same agreement requires the employer to make instructions understandable to workers who are illiterate or speak another language (article 66, paragraph 8). On a construction site, this precaution is just as useful: an instruction the worker does not understand does not protect him.
The most common mistake
Believing that a risk allowance replaces equipment. The mining agreement pays a risk allowance of at least 12% of the base salary of category E1, while acknowledging that no compensation can cover the risk (article 65, paragraph 7). The allowance pays for exposure; it does not replace protection. Likewise, "justified loss" does not allow you to deduct the price of equipment lost without justification: deductions remain limited by law (articles L.121 and L.123), and the agreement prohibits any financial penalty.
“The agreement follows the employer; the instructions follow the site.”
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8. A closer look: task contractors and young workers
The task contractor's workers
Bâtir Sahel entrusts the tiling to a task contractor (tâcheron), meaning a subcontractor who recruits his own workers for a job paid at a flat rate (article L.91). The employer of these workers is the task contractor: safety obligations fall on him first. The main contractor takes his place only if he is insolvent, when the work takes place on the main contractor's site (article L.92).
On the same site, however, a worker without a helmet remains a danger to everyone. So include the supply and wearing of PPE in the task contract, which must be in writing. Read I use a task contractor: who pays the workers if he defaults?.
Young workers
No child may be employed before 15, even as an apprentice, unless an order grants an exemption (article L.187). Before 16, work on suspended scaffolding is prohibited (Decree No. 96-178, article D.189-29). Read Can you hire a minor?.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Look for your obligations in the decrees and in your collective agreement, not only in the Code: Decree No. 96-178 for general measures, Decree No. 07-375 for construction sites.
- Install collective protection first, such as 90 cm guardrails, then supply PPE for the remaining risk.
- Equip each workstation according to its risk, even when no text names the equipment: the inspector can require it.
- Pay for, maintain and replace PPE at the company's expense, without any wage deduction.
- Sanction a refusal to wear equipment according to your collective agreement's scale, never through a fine.
- Comply with formal notices and report every accident within 48 hours: inexcusable fault is paid for with personal assets.