Employment law
Time-barred wage and end-of-contract claims:
Late March 2025, one Monday morning: Sogoba Transports’ trucks wait to be loaded in the dust of the yard in Bamako when a letter from the labour inspectorate reaches the HR manager. Moussa, a driver dismissed ten months earlier, is claiming twenty hours of overtime a month since January 2022 and the balance of his severance pay. The managing director brushes it aside: “It’s too old, and he signed a full and final settlement receipt.” He is wrong twice, and more than XOF 900,000 is at stake.
Sogoba Transports, a 60-employee freight company, and the people mentioned are fictitious; they are used only as an example.
1. The legal framework: which texts set the deadline for claiming wages?
Before counting days, you need to know where the rule sits. In Mali, it all comes down to a few articles of the Labour Code that most employers have never read.
- Law No. 92-020 of 23 September 1992 enacting the Labour Code, as amended: the main text. Its relevant articles:
- Labour Code, article L.118: sets a three-year time limit for claiming any sum due in respect of work; articles L.119 and L.120 specify when that period starts and what interrupts it.
- Articles L.190 and L.191: govern conciliation, meaning the labour inspector’s attempt to bring both parties to an agreement without going to court; this step suspends the period.
- Articles L.103, L.110 and L.111: require wages and allowances to be paid as soon as the contract ends and strip the words “in full and final settlement” of any effect.
- Article L.169: sets a separate two-year limit for claiming travel tickets after the contract ends.
- Law No. 2017-021 of 12 June 2017 amending the Labour Code: gave articles L.118, L.169 and L.191 their current wording.
- Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996 on the implementing arrangements for certain provisions of the Labour Code: sets the fine payable by a party who fails to attend conciliation (article A.190).
Other texts complete this framework without changing the time limit. Collective agreements, establishment agreements and the employment contract often set the amount of bonuses and allowances. The time limit for claiming them comes from article L.118, which covers every sum due in respect of work, whatever its source. Finally, articles L.108 and L.130 require you to keep the payroll register and the employer’s register for five years: they are your evidence.
The most common mistake
Many guides in circulation apply French time limits to Mali: twelve months to challenge a dismissal, two years for disputes over the performance of the contract, or a period that only starts on the day the employee “discovers” their right. None of these rules exists in the Malian Labour Code. They can lead you to believe a file is closed when it is still open.
“For sums arising from work, Malian law keeps only one number: three years.”
2. Limitation or time bar: what exactly are we talking about?
Moussa is not asking for a gift. He is claiming hours he says he worked without being paid; the remedies open to him are set out in our article Unpaid wages: employee remedies, employer risks. The only question still open for Sogoba is therefore: is there still time?
A limitation period (prescription) is the loss of the right to go to court once the deadline set by law has passed. The Code calls it “extinctive and discharging” (article L.119): the claim, meaning the sum one person is entitled to demand from another, is extinguished, and the employer is released from the debt. Businesses often use the French word forclusion (time bar) in the same sense; the Labour Code itself speaks of prescription.
Why this deadline? It protects both parties against disputes that can no longer be settled. After a few years, schedules disappear, witnesses leave and memories fade. The law therefore pushes the employee to act quickly and allows the employer to close a file.
The distinction has practical consequences. A limitation period can be interrupted or suspended by certain acts, explained in section 5. That is why the exact date of each step matters.
Four time limits not to confuse
The three-year period is not the only one in employment disputes. The other periods in the table are much shorter and cover other steps.
| Step | Time limit | Text |
|---|---|---|
| Claim a wage, bonus or allowance | 3 years from the date the sum is due | L.118 and L.119 |
| Demand travel tickets after the contract ends | 2 years from the end of work | L.169 |
| Appeal a labour court judgment | 15 days from delivery of the judgment | L.216 |
| Oppose a judgment given by default (in the absence of a party) | 10 days after service (formal delivery of the judgment), plus extra time for parties far away | L.212 |
The most common mistake
Believing that an employee who has left has only a few days to act, by confusing the time limit for claiming with the time limit for appealing. The fifteen days in article L.216 run only after a judgment. Before any trial, the three-year period is what counts.
3. Three years for what? What the period covers, and what it leaves unclear
Moussa is claiming two different things: overtime and the balance of his severance pay. Does the same period apply to both?
Yes. Article L.118 covers wages, wage supplements, meaning the sums added to the base salary, bonuses and allowances, “any other sum due in respect of work”, and benefits in kind and their reimbursement. End-of-contract entitlements, meaning the sums due when the contract ends, fall within this list.
| Sum claimed | Legal basis | Time limit to act |
|---|---|---|
| Wages, overtime, bonuses | Contract, collective agreement, L.97, L.137 | 3 years for each pay date |
| Payment in lieu of notice | L.42 | 3 years |
| Severance pay, service pay on resignation, retirement allowance | L.53, L.54, L.55 | 3 years |
| Payment in lieu of paid leave | L.162 | 3 years |
| Precarity payment at the end of a fixed-term contract | L.24 | 3 years |
| Travel tickets | L.164, L.169 | 2 years after work ends |
| Damages for unfair dismissal | L.51 | No specific limit in the Code |
The case of damages for unfair dismissal
Damages are the sum a judge awards to make good a loss. Damages for unfair dismissal are not wages: they compensate the loss of the job. The Labour Code sets no specific time limit for them, and article L.40 simply states that an employee who disputes the dismissal may take the matter to court.
So do not build any strategy on a short deadline. Keep the dismissal file at least as long as the end-of-contract sums can be claimed, and longer if the dismissal has been challenged.
The most common mistake
Believing that end-of-contract payments escape the three-year limit because they are “due once and for all”. They are subject to it just like wages. Conversely, believing that this three-year limit also applies to travel tickets: for them, the limit is two years.
What you need to do
- List, for each departure, every sum due: last month’s wages, notice, termination payment, leave, and the fixed-term precarity payment where applicable.
- Record in the employee’s file the date on which each sum had to be paid.
- Keep the full dismissal file beyond three years as long as a challenge remains possible.
4. The starting point: each payslip has its own countdown
Sogoba’s managing director treats Moussa’s claim as a single block: either all of it is time-barred or none of it is. The Code reasons differently, month by month.
Under Labour Code, article L.119, the period starts on the date the wages are due. Each payment therefore has its own starting date, and each becomes time-barred separately. The period ends on the day bearing the same date in the month three years later: a wage due on 5 April 2022 can be claimed until 5 April 2025.
For a monthly wage, Labour Code, article L.103 requires payment no later than eight days after the end of the month worked. In practice, the date to use is the date on which payroll had to be paid in your company, within that eight-day limit.
The period runs even if the employee is still with the company. Article L.120 says so expressly: limitation applies “even if service has continued”. An employee in post who claims nothing therefore loses, month after month, the oldest arrears. The rule protects the employer against arrears piling up over ten years and pushes the employee to claim as they go.
End-of-contract entitlements: a single starting point, the departure
For end-of-contract sums, article L.103 sets the rule: wages and allowances are paid as soon as the work ends. The three-year period therefore starts on the day the employee leaves the company. Payment in lieu of leave follows the same logic: article L.162 requires it to be paid immediately on termination.
Example. Sogoba pays wages on the 5th of the following month. Moussa was never paid for his 20 hours of overtime a month, from January 2022 until he left on 31 May 2024. His hourly rate is XOF 1,500, and 20 hours a month is less than 5 hours a week above 40 hours. He refers the matter to the labour inspector on 20 March 2025.
Overtime hour with a 10% premium (41st to 48th hour, article L.137): 1,500 × 1.10 = XOF 1,650
Arrears per month: 20 hours × 1,650 = XOF 33,000
Months claimed: January 2022 to May 2024, i.e. 29 months: 29 × 33,000 = XOF 957,000
Time-barred months: January 2022 (payable on 5 February 2022, claimable until 5 February 2025) and February 2022 (payable on 5 March 2022, claimable until 5 March 2025): 2 × 33,000 = XOF 66,000
Months still claimable: March 2022 to May 2024, i.e. 27 months: 27 × 33,000 = XOF 891,000
The director thought the whole claim was wiped out; limitation removes only XOF 66,000. Had Moussa waited until 20 March 2026, fourteen months in total would have been time-barred, leaving only 15 months, or XOF 495,000: each month of waiting removes one month of arrears.
His severance balance, on the other hand, has been due since 31 May 2024: he can claim it until 31 May 2027.
The most common mistake
Counting three years from the employee’s departure for all their wages. That is true only for end-of-contract entitlements. For wages, each month has its own starting date, and a wage unpaid for more than three years on the day of the claim is time-barred, even if the employee has only just left.
“Each payslip has its own birth date. That date sets its expiry date.”
What you need to do
- Set a single pay date, within eight days after the end of the month, and write it into the internal rules or the contracts.
- For any claim, date each month claimed and check, month by month, whether it can still be claimed.
- Never treat an entire claim as time-barred without doing that calculation.
5. What stops the clock: the inspector or the judge, nothing else
Moussa did not write to his former employer. He went straight to the labour inspector. That choice changes the whole calculation.
Under Labour Code, article L.120, the limitation period is interrupted only by two acts: a certificate from the labour inspector stating the date on which the dispute was referred to him and its subject, and a court summons that has not lapsed. To interrupt the limitation period is to stop it on the date of that act. Why only these two acts? They carry a certain date, set by an authority, that no one can dispute.
A summons is the document that calls the other party before the court. It lapses when it has lost its effect. The Code gives a close example: if the claimant does not attend the hearing, the case is struck off the list, that is, removed from the list of cases to be heard, and it can be revived only once (article L.205).
Labour Code, article L.190 adds a rule specific to conciliation. The request sent to the inspector suspends the period from the date it is received until the official report (procès-verbal), the written document that closes the conciliation attempt by recording the agreement or the failure. To suspend is to pause the clock: it then resumes where it stopped.
If conciliation fails, the inspector draws up a report of non-conciliation, and the employee can bring the case before the labour court by a simple declaration to the registry, that is, the court’s administrative office (article L.191).
What does not stop anything
A letter from the employee to the employer, a message, or a complaint to a staff delegate are not on the list in article L.120. The text says “only”: these steps do not interrupt the limitation period. They matter for the working relationship, not for the deadline.
Example. Moussa referred the matter to the inspector on 20 March 2025. That day, his March 2022 wage, payable on 5 April 2022, could still be claimed for 16 more days, until 5 April 2025. Conciliation fails on 10 April 2025: throughout those three weeks the clock stayed paused, and the remaining 16 days only start running again after the official report. Without that pause, this month would have become time-barred on 5 April, in the middle of conciliation.
The most common mistake
Ignoring the inspector’s summons in the belief that the file “will die on its own”. The referral has already stopped the clock. And article L.190 requires the parties to attend, on pain of a civil fine of XOF 5,000 (Order No. 1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996, article A.190). Not attending means losing the chance to settle the dispute amicably, while gaining nothing on the deadline.
“Time works in your favour only until someone goes to the inspector or the judge.”
What you need to do
- Record in the file the date of receipt of any summons from the labour inspectorate.
- Attend the conciliation with the payroll register and the payslips for the period claimed.
- Ask for a copy of the official report, whether it records an agreement or a failure.
6. The full and final settlement receipt does not close the file
Sogoba’s director plays his second card: Moussa signed a receipt “in full and final settlement” on the day he left.
Labour Code, article L.111 strips it of any effect: the words “in full and final settlement”, by which the employee waives rights under the contract, are not enforceable against him. Enforceable means that it can be relied on against him; here, it cannot. Article L.110 adds that signing a payslip or the payroll register without protest does not amount to waiving wages.
Why this rule? On the day of departure, the employee often signs in order to receive the money, without checking the calculations. The law refuses to let a signature obtained in those conditions wipe out a right.
The receipt still serves a real purpose: it proves what was paid, line by line. It is an inventory, not a waiver, as our article on the full and final settlement receipt explains.
The most common mistake
Having the employee sign an overall receipt, with no breakdown of sums, and filing it as a final discharge. A receipt without detail protects nothing: it blocks no claim and does not prove what was paid.
“A signature proves what was paid, never what was given up.”
What you need to do
- Itemise on the receipt each sum paid: wages, notice, allowances, leave.
- Attach the last payslip and proof of payment (transfer, cheque, signed pay sheet).
- Rely on the limitation period, never on the receipt, to close a file.
7. At the end of the contract: pay everything, immediately, and prove it
The best defence against a late claim is still to owe nothing. At Sogoba, the balance Moussa is claiming comes from a calculation error made on the day he left.
Article L.103 requires wages and allowances to be paid as soon as the work ends. The rule protects an employee who loses their source of income that very day. Delaying that payment is an offence: article L.319 punishes it with a fine of XOF 20,000 to 50,000 and imprisonment of 15 days to 3 months, or only one of these two penalties.
If you disagree on the amount, you cannot hold everything back. Article L.103 only allows you to ask the president of the labour court to have all or part of the attachable portion of the sums due deposited with the court’s office. The attachable portion is the share of pay that may be withheld; the rest may not. Its calculation is explained in our article on the assignable and attachable portion of wages.
Example. Moussa had 7 years and 4 months’ service. His average monthly pay over the last twelve months, base salary and bonuses, was XOF 290,000. Sogoba calculated his severance pay on 7 full years only, whereas article L.53 requires fractions of a year to be counted.
First five years: 5 × 20% × 290,000 = XOF 290,000
6th and 7th years: 2 × 25% × 290,000 = XOF 145,000
4 months of the 8th year: 25% × 4/12 × 290,000 = XOF 24,167 (rounded)
Severance due: 290,000 + 145,000 + 24,167 = XOF 459,167
Severance paid (7 full years): 290,000 + 145,000 = XOF 435,000
Balance: 459,167 − 435,000 = XOF 24,167
This balance has been due since 31 May 2024: Moussa can claim it until 31 May 2027. And if he wins, the judgment can order immediate payment of up to 50% of the wages and allowances awarded, even if you appeal (article L.211).
Travel tickets: two years, and only for a real journey
An employee recruited away from the place of work is entitled, in the cases listed in article L.164, to the return journey at the employer’s expense. Labour Code, article L.169 gives him two years after work ends to demand his travel tickets, and the employer issues them only if the journey actually takes place. The Code provides for a ticket for a real journey, not for payment of its price.
The most common mistake
Paying end-of-contract entitlements “when cash flow allows”, sometimes weeks after departure. The delay is an offence in itself, and it fuels claims: an employee kept waiting for money often ends up at the labour inspectorate.
“The safest file is not the oldest one; it is the one where nothing is owed.”
What you need to do
- Prepare the final settlement before the last day and pay it on the departure date.
- Have every allowance calculation checked, including fractions of a year.
- Keep the payroll register and the employer’s register for five years after the last entry (articles L.108 and L.130), as our article on mandatory employer registers explains.
8. A closer look: what the Code says, and what it leaves open
The Labour Code uses two words for conciliation. Article L.190 says the request to the inspector suspends the period; article L.120 says the inspector’s certificate interrupts it. Both rules agree on the essential point: from the referral to the inspector, the clock stops. For you, the date to remember is the date the inspectorate received the request; at Sogoba, it is 20 March 2025.
The Code does not say what happens after an interruption: does a new three-year period start, and from when? Nor does it say how long a summons remains “not lapsed”. Only the courts can settle these points. To be safe, assume that a claim brought before the inspector or the judge remains open until it is decided or abandoned.
Finally, article L.118 was rewritten by Law No. 2017-021 of 12 June 2017. Before applying a time limit found in an older document, check that it matches the text in force: three years for all sums due in respect of work.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Apply a single time limit to wages, bonuses and allowances: three years (article L.118), and forget the French limits of twelve months or two years.
- Calculate the period payslip by payslip: each wage becomes time-barred three years after the date it had to be paid, even if the employee is still in post.
- Start the period for end-of-contract entitlements on the day the employee leaves, since everything must be paid at that point (article L.103).
- Treat any referral to the inspector or the court as stopping the clock: a letter from the employee stops nothing, conciliation or a summons does.
- Never rely on the full and final settlement receipt to close a file: it proves a payment, it wipes out no right.
- Pay everything, immediately, with a detailed breakdown, and keep registers and evidence for five years.