Employment law
Managing Internships: Four Schemes People Confuse, and One that Does Not Exist
The digital services company takes in four or five young graduates every year. They are called “interns”, they are paid a sum agreed orally, nothing is signed. The day one of them claims eighteen months' wages before the labour court, management discovers that in Malian law an intern without a written contract is not an intern: he is an employee on an open-ended contract.
1. Four schemes, and the word that covers them all
Mariam Touré runs Sahel Data, a digital services company of eighteen employees based in Bamako. She uses the word “internship” for four situations that the Labour Code carefully distinguishes, and which share neither duration, nor pay, nor formalities.
Sahel Data and the people named in this article are fictitious: their names serve only as examples.
| Scheme | For whom | Duration | Writing and formality |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internship or training provided for in the contract | An employee already in post, or hired with a training clause | As stated in the contract or amendment | Writing mandatory; objectives, duration and pay expressly stated |
| Qualification contract | Unemployed young graduates | From 6 months to 2 years | Writing mandatory, filing with the regional labour directorate |
| Apprenticeship contract | Young people aged 15 to 21, or 13 with the first cycle of basic education | Set in the contract, ending with an examination | Writing mandatory, filing with the inspectorate of the place of apprenticeship |
| Training funded by the employer | Any employee in post | That of the training course | Written agreement filed with the inspectorate, minimum service of 4 years at most |
The scheme missing from that list is the one companies use most: the informal internship, with no writing and a convenience allowance. It does not exist in Malian law. Anyone who places his professional activity, for remuneration, under the direction and authority of an employer is a worker, and any contract that does not meet the definitions of the fixed-term contract, the apprenticeship contract, the qualification contract or the probationary engagement must be treated as an open-ended contract.
The most common mistake
Believing that an agreement signed with a school is enough. It governs relations with the institution, not the employment relationship. If the young person works under your direction and receives remuneration, it is the Labour Code that determines his position, whatever the title of the document signed elsewhere.
The informal internship does not exist. There are named contracts, and there is the open-ended contract.
2. The internship provided for in the contract: the most flexible form, and the most overlooked
The employment contract, or later an amendment to it, may provide for vocational training in alternation or in continuing education, or an internship. The objectives and duration of the training or internship and the remuneration must be expressly stated (Labour Code, article L.9). All such contracts and amendments must be recorded in writing.
Three particulars are therefore mandatory, and their absence cannot be made good: objectives, duration, remuneration. An amendment that merely announces “a training period” meets none of the three.
The consequence at expiry is the part that is forgotten. At the end of the training, the employment contract continues, unless the training was not conclusive. In other words, the end of the internship is not the end of the contract: it is its continuation, and only inconclusive training allows it to be brought to an end.
Alternating training
Any young person aged sixteen to twenty-five may complete their initial training through alternating training. It combines general, vocational and technological teaching given during working time, in public or private bodies, with the acquisition of know-how by performing in the undertaking activities related to that teaching.
It is organised in three frameworks: special types of employment contract, training periods provided for in an ordinary employment contract, or various vocational training courses.
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3. The qualification contract: the real internship for young graduates
This is the scheme most companies are looking for without naming it. Within the framework of internships, unemployed young graduates may be offered a special type of employment contract called a “qualification contract”.
The implementing decree sets out its regime. Training aimed at acquiring a vocational qualification is given under an employment contract called a qualification contract, lasting between six months and two years. It must be made in writing and is filed with the regional labour directorate. See also our article on the qualification or internship contract.
The employer undertakes, for the period provided, to give the young person a job and to provide training leading to a vocational qualification recognised in the classifications of a branch collective agreement, or appearing on a list drawn up by the minister responsible for labour. It is therefore not an observation placement: it is a job coupled with qualifying training.
Pay, and the ceiling nobody knows
Subject to more favourable contractual provisions, holders of a qualification contract receive remuneration determined by reference to the guaranteed minimum wage, the amount of which may vary according to the beneficiary's age.
Decree no. 92-128/PM-RM of 18 April 1992, setting the arrangements for the training placement of unemployed young graduates, is more precise still: young graduates holding qualification contracts receive an allowance equal to 50% of the basic salary of the occupational category corresponding to the job held, the total not exceeding XOF 50,000.
Example. Sahel Data recruits a young software development graduate on a qualification contract, for a job whose category corresponds to a basic salary of XOF 80,000.
- Allowance due: 80,000 × 50% = XOF 40,000
- Applicable ceiling: XOF 50,000, not reached
- Had the job fallen into a category at XOF 120,000: 120,000 × 50% = XOF 60,000, reduced to the ceiling of XOF 50,000
- Permanent headcount of the company: 18 employees
- Maximum number of beneficiaries: 18 × 10% = 1.8, i.e. a single qualification contract at a time
The tax formalities, which condition the benefit
The same decree organises a deduction and makes it conditional on precise steps. The qualification contract is filed at the latest one month before the placement begins. Within fifteen days of filing, the director general or the regional director of the body responsible for employment notifies the head of the undertaking of the contract's legal regularity and of the possibility of deducting the allowance paid from the base of the flat-rate contribution.
To obtain that deduction, the employer must then file with his tax office a copy of the contract and a copy of the notification letter, and send that office each month a nominative statement of the interns showing the contract references and the amounts paid.
Finally, at the end of the vocational training placement, the undertaking must issue the young graduate with a written certificate stating the period and the occupational category corresponding to the job held.
The most common mistake
Filing the contract after the placement has started, or not at all. Filing takes place at the latest one month before the start: it triggers the notification, and the notification opens the tax deduction. A contract filed late forfeits the benefit that justified the scheme.
One month before the placement begins. Not on day one, not the day after.
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4. The apprenticeship contract: training, not manpower
An apprenticeship contract is a special type of employment contract by which an employer undertakes, in addition to paying an apprenticeship allowance, to provide methodical and complete vocational training, given in the undertaking and where appropriate in a vocational training centre, to a young worker who in return undertakes to work for that employer for the duration of the contract (Labour Code, article L.7).
Two formal rules condition its existence: it must be recorded in writing, and one copy must be filed with the labour inspectorate of the district where the apprenticeship takes place. Failing either rule, the contract is treated as an open-ended employment contract. See also our article on the apprenticeship contract.
Who may be an apprentice, and who may take one
No one may be engaged as an apprentice unless aged at least fifteen and at most twenty-one at the start of the apprenticeship. Young people aged at least thirteen may nonetheless enter an apprenticeship contract if they show they have completed the first cycle of basic education. On the company's side, no one may take apprentices unless of age or emancipated, and the master of apprenticeship must be of good character.
The employer's obligations
The employer undertakes to teach the apprentice methodically, progressively and completely the art, trade or occupation covered by the contract, and must employ him only on work related to it. Where a vocational training centre exists in the locality, he must enrol the apprentice there and have him follow all the teaching organised; the time spent on that teaching is included in working hours.
At the end of the apprenticeship, the employer must enter the apprentice for the examination held to issue the certificate of occupational qualification, taken before the body designated by joint order of the ministers responsible for labour and vocational training.
| Point of regime | What the text provides |
|---|---|
| Apprenticeship allowance | At least 25% of the minimum wage in the first year, 50% in the second, the full minimum wage in the third |
| Social contributions | Calculated on a flat-rate basis on the statutory basic salary; the State bears both employer and employee shares |
| Tax treatment of the allowance | Deducted from the base of the flat-rate contribution, the apprenticeship tax and the youth employment tax |
| Termination | Free and without compensation during the first two months, recorded in writing; thereafter only by express bilateral agreement or judicial rescission by the labour court |
| Undertaking after the apprenticeship | May be provided for in the contract, not exceeding two years; breach may give rise to compensation |
| Annual return | Before 31 January, a return to the inspectorate: average monthly headcount, actual number of apprentices, and how any shortfall will be made up |
The most common mistake
Ending an apprenticeship contract in its sixth month because the apprentice “is not working out”. After the first two months, termination may occur only by express bilateral agreement of the signatories, or by judicial rescission pronounced by the labour court at the request of either party. There is no such thing as dismissing an apprentice.
Two months to part freely. After that, it takes both parties' agreement or the judge's.
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5. The training you fund, and the return you may require
Where a worker receives vocational training or further training involving costs borne by the employer, it may be stipulated that he will stay in the employer's service for a minimum period commensurate with the cost of that training, never exceeding four years (Labour Code, article L.12).
Two formal conditions make that clause enforceable: the agreement must be recorded in writing, and it must be filed immediately with the labour inspectorate. Without either, the undertaking is worth nothing.
A worker who fails to honour that obligation must reimburse the costs incurred, in proportion to the period not worked relative to the total minimum service subscribed. The calculation is therefore proportionate, not a flat amount.
Example. Sahel Data funds a certification costing XOF 900,000, against a three-year service undertaking. The employee resigns after eighteen months.
- Minimum service subscribed: 36 months
- Period actually worked: 18 months
- Period not worked: 36 − 18 = 18 months
- Reimbursable share: 18 ÷ 36 = 50%
- Reimbursement due: 900,000 × 50% = XOF 450,000
Training leave
Training leave is granted to workers designated to attend courses included in the undertaking's training plan. Its duration may not be charged against annual leave, is treated as a period of work for determining leave entitlement, and counts towards length of service. During the course, employees keep, at the employer's expense, their previous remuneration and the benefits attached to it.
This is to be distinguished from workers' education or trade union training leave, which may be granted at the worker's request but is unpaid, while also being treated as a period of effective work for the calculation of paid leave, entitlement to family benefits and length of service.
Four years at most, in writing, and filed. Three conditions, not two.
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6. A young person in training remains a protected worker
Whatever the scheme, the intern, the apprentice and the holder of a qualification contract remain workers, and the Code's protections apply to them.
The pre-employment medical examination applies before hiring or, at the latest, before the end of the probationary period (Social Welfare Code, article 43). And workers under eighteen must undergo a medical examination every three months, against once a year for the others.
Young workers and apprentices under eighteen on the first day of the month of their departure on leave are entitled, on request, to a minimum of twenty-four days' leave, non-working days included, whatever the length of their service. Those aged eighteen to twenty-one are entitled to a minimum of twenty-one days. That additional leave is not, however, paid beyond the rights actually accrued.
It is further prohibited to employ children on work beyond their strength, presenting dangers or likely to harm their morals, and their rest must last at least twelve consecutive hours. Apprentices are finally counted in the establishment's headcount for determining the number of staff delegates.
An apprentice is being trained. He does not fill a post, and he loses no protection.
7. What a badly framed internship costs
Breaches of the apprenticeship and contractual internship rules are punishable by a fine of XOF 5,000 to 15,000, raised to XOF 10,000 to 50,000 on repeat offence. Alongside that criminal route, the labour inspector collects directly a flat-rate police fine of XOF 7,500 for breaches of articles L.7 and L.8, the rates having been set by the order of 27 December 2024.
But the main cost is not the fine. It lies in reclassification. An apprenticeship contract without writing or without filing is treated as an open-ended employment contract. An intern without a written contract falls under the same default regime. And terminating an open-ended contract requires notice to the labour inspector, a written and reasoned notice, and gives rise to a severance payment from one year of service. See also our article on the severance payment.
Example. Sahel Data hosted an “intern” for eighteen months, with no writing, at XOF 75,000 a month, then ended the relationship with a phone call.
- Classification applied: open-ended employment contract, for want of writing meeting a special form
- Termination: without notice to the inspector, without written notification and without a stated ground
- Compensation for procedural defect: up to one month's gross salary, i.e. XOF 75,000
- Payment in lieu of notice for a monthly-paid worker: one month, i.e. XOF 75,000
- Severance payment for eighteen months' service at 20% of the monthly average: 75,000 × 20% × 1.5 = XOF 22,500
- Sub-total, excluding any damages for wrongful termination: 75,000 + 75,000 + 22,500 = XOF 172,500
To which are added, depending on the case, unpaid social contributions, late-payment surcharges of 2% per month and the cost of any benefits paid if an accident occurred during the undeclared period.
The unwritten internship costs nothing for eighteen months. It costs everything in the nineteenth.
A closer look: what the decree of 4 March 2022 changed for apprenticeships
Decree no. 2022-0125/PT-RM of 4 March 2022, amending decree no. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996 implementing the Labour Code, rewrote several articles of the apprenticeship regime.
It confirms the employer's duty to enter the apprentice, at the end of the apprenticeship, for the examination held to issue the certificate of occupational qualification, substituting that name for the certificate of vocational aptitude used in the 1996 text.
It clarifies the social contributions regime: they are calculated on a flat-rate basis on the statutory basic salary, and the State bears, through an interministerial order, both the employer and employee statutory contributions.
It finally maintains the annual return: undertakings must provide the district labour inspectorate, before 31 January each year, with a return as at the preceding 31 December showing the average monthly headcount used as the base for the apprentice percentage, the actual number of apprentices and, where there is a shortfall, how and by when it will be made up. A form drawn up by the National Employment Agency is made available to the employer, who completes it in duplicate.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Name the scheme before taking the young person in: contractual internship, qualification contract, apprenticeship or funded training. Outside those four forms, it is an open-ended contract.
- State in writing the objectives, duration and pay of every internship provided for in a contract or amendment.
- File the qualification contract with the regional labour directorate one month before the placement begins, and stay under the ceiling of ten per cent of the permanent headcount.
- File the apprenticeship contract with the inspectorate of the place of apprenticeship and enter the apprentice for the final examination.
- Have every funded training agreement written and filed, bearing in mind that reimbursement is proportionate to the period not worked.
- Treat the young person in training as a worker: medical examination, quarterly check-ups under eighteen, minimum leave and the Code's protections.