Overtime: the legal framework, from authorisation to payslip

A customer places an urgent order for 50,000 cartons, to be delivered in ten days. The production manager proposes running the plant until 10 pm and on Saturdays. The question is not only how much it will cost: is authorisation needed, how far can you go, and how do you prove it on the payslips?

Our fictional running case: Kita Emballages, a carton maker in Bamako with 75 employees on a 40-hour collective schedule.

1. What exactly are we talking about?

An overtime hour is an hour worked beyond the statutory 40 hours per week. Labour Code, article L.131 In agricultural businesses, the statutory limit is 48 hours per week at most (article L.138).

The premium compensates for the fatigue and constraint of longer working time. But not every hour beyond 40 necessarily carries a premium.

Mechanism	Effect on pay
Equivalence (security, retail, hospitality…)	A longer presence time is equivalent to 40 hours of actual work (article L.136)
Making up lost hours (breakdown, bad weather)	Paid at the normal rate (article L.134)
Extension for preparatory or ancillary work	Paid at the normal rate (article L.135)
Overtime hour	Paid with the statutory or agreed premium

An hour beyond 40 is not always overtime. An overtime hour always carries a premium.

2. Premium rates

Absent a collective agreement or a company or establishment agreement, the minimum premiums are as follows. They apply to the actual overall wage paid for performing the work. Labour Code, article L.137

Day	Time and rank of the hour	Premium
Working day	Daytime, 41st to 48th hour inclusive	10%
Working day	Daytime, beyond the 48th hour	25%
Working day	Night	50%
Non-working day	Daytime	50%
Non-working day	Night	100%

Night work is work done between 9 pm and 5 am. Labour Code, article L.141 Non-working days include the weekly rest day and public holidays. See Public holidays.

The most common mistake

Setting payroll to the Code’s rates when a collective or establishment agreement sets higher ones. The Code’s rates apply only in the absence of an agreement. Check in this order: the establishment agreement, the collective agreement, then the Code.

What you need to do

• Identify the applicable collective agreement and its premium rates.
• Set payroll to those rates, and to the Code’s rates only if there is no agreement.

3. Authorisations and caps

Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996 sets the conditions under which overtime may be worked.

Reason	Limit
Urgent work (accident, rescue, imminent loss of a product)	2 hours per day at most
Urgent and exceptional work (extraordinary workload)	75 hours per year at most
Maintaining or increasing output	18 hours per week at most, with the labour inspector’s authorisation, for a renewable 3 months
Exceptional circumstances	Excess authorised by the inspector, never beyond 60 hours of work per week

Where unemployment in a sector is prolonged, the inspector may suspend the use of overtime to encourage hiring. At Kita Emballages, management requests authorisation before starting the evening shifts.

The absolute limit: weekly rest

Weekly rest is mandatory, 24 hours minimum, in principle on Sunday. It can never be replaced by a payment. Labour Code, article L.142 Only establishments whose activity cannot stop without serious inconvenience may grant this rest on a rota basis on another day (article L.143).

What you need to do

• Ask for the inspector’s authorisation before any production overtime programme.
• Schedule each employee’s 24-hour rest before organising weekend work.

4. Flat rates and bonuses: what does not replace the premium

A flat-rate payment for overtime is valid only if it gives the employee pay at least equal to what is legally due. Labour Code, article L.139 A flat rate therefore never removes the need to count actual hours.

Likewise, a "performance bonus" or "attendance bonus" does not count as payment for overtime. The payslip must show overtime among the components of gross pay (article L.105).

What a missed premium costs

Employees may claim unpaid premiums for three years. Labour Code, article L.118

Example. At Kita Emballages, 40 operators paid XOF 1,200 per hour each work 16 hours a month between the 41st and 48th hour, paid without a premium.

Missing premium per employee per month: 16 × 1,200 × 10% = XOF 1,920
Over three years: 1,920 × 36 = XOF 69,120 per employee
For 40 employees: 69,120 × 40 = XOF 2,764,800 in back pay

Criminal fines come on top: XOF 5,000 to 18,000, and XOF 15,000 to 50,000 for a repeat offence, for breaches of the rules on working time and overtime (article L.325), applied as many times as there are offences (article L.335).

5. What to check every month

• Are hours recorded per employee, with start and end times?
• Is the breakdown right: rank of the hour, day or night, working day or not?
• Are the rates applied those of the collective agreement, if there is one?
• Does the inspector’s authorisation cover the period and the volume of hours?
• Has every employee had their 24 hours of weekly rest?
• Does the payslip show hours and rates?

For the step-by-step calculation method, see Overtime: manual calculation. For organising working hours, see Working hours.

A closer look: the agricultural sector

On farms, working time is set at 2,352 hours per year. Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG spreads it by season: 42 hours per week from March to June, 46 hours from July to October, 48 hours from November to February. Beyond 48 hours, minimum premiums are 10% by day and 50% by night; on rest days and public holidays, 50% by day and 100% by night (article L.138).

Key takeaways in 6 points

1. Pay a premium on every hour worked beyond 40 per week, except equivalences, make-up hours and extensions.
2. Apply the collective agreement’s rates, and the Code’s only in its absence.
3. Obtain the inspector’s authorisation for production overtime, up to 18 hours per week.
4. Never touch the 24 hours of weekly rest.
5. Never replace the premium with a bonus or a lower flat rate.
6. Show hours and rates on every payslip.