Employment law
Recruiting in Mali: the full sequence, from advertisement to declaration
Niger Textile, a spinning mill in Ségou, opens a second shift and recruits twelve operators in three weeks. The advertisement runs in the press, the interviews follow one another, the contracts are signed, production starts. Two months later the labour inspectorate calls and asks three questions: where are the hiring declarations, where are the written probation agreements, and why were the six-month fixed-term contracts not filed?
Niger Textile is a fictitious company, as are the people named in this article: their names serve only as an example. The three questions, however, are the ones actually asked. Choosing a candidate is free. Advertising, formalising and declaring are not.
1. What are we actually talking about?
Recruitment is often presented as the domain of the employer's discretion. On the merits that is correct: nobody can impose a candidate on a company.
But that freedom operates within a framework, and the framework covers three distinct moments: advertising the vacancy, the form of the contract, and the declarations that follow the hire. It is almost always the third moment that is missed, because it comes once everyone considers the matter settled.
Recruitment does not end at the signature. It ends at the declarations.
2. Advertising a vacancy: what the Code regulates
The Code regulates the advertising of vacancies in a way many companies are unaware of: job offers and job applications may not be advertised by poster or by any other means of publicity except on the premises of placement bodies. However, inserting job offers and applications in the press is permitted (Labour Code, article L.307).
The same article adds two requirements for press advertisements, and they are easy to meet.
- An employer placing a job advertisement must state its name or corporate name and its address. Anonymous advertisements are not allowed.
- Publication must be arranged so that the offer is still valid on the day it appears. A vacancy already filled is not advertised.
The content of the advertisement: job requirements, not personal traits
Any distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin which destroys employment or impairs equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or vocational training is prohibited. The prohibition expressly covers invalidity, disability, HIV and AIDS as well (Labour Code, article L.4).
Distinctions based on the qualifications required for a given job remain lawful. The dividing line is therefore simple: a vacancy is written in terms of what the job requires, never in terms of what the person is. "Accountancy qualification and three years' experience" is lawful; a criterion aimed at the person rather than the job is not.
The same rules bind intermediaries: fee-charging employment agencies must not subject workers to any discrimination based on race, colour, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction, social origin or any other recognised form of discrimination (Labour Code, article L.305). See Equality at work.
3. Through which channels does placement operate?
| The channel | Its regime | What it costs the candidate |
|---|---|---|
| The public placement service | Provided by the public body designated for the purpose; its services are free (L.302) | Nothing |
| Fee-charging employment agencies | Any natural or legal person may be authorised, the conditions for opening being set by decree (L.303) | Nothing either: the fees are borne entirely by employers (L.304) |
Two rules protect the candidate and admit no exception. Placement fees are borne entirely by employers, and no payment whatsoever may be taken from workers (Labour Code, article L.304). And the managers of fee-charging employment agencies and their staff are prohibited from taking or accepting deposits of any kind (Labour Code, article L.305).
One obligation, finally, falls on the employer itself, and it precedes any hiring: anyone opening an establishment or a worksite of any kind must declare it to the public placement service, or to a fee-charging employment agency (Labour Code, article L.306).
4. Which contract, and with what formalities?
The principle is the open-ended contract: any contract that does not meet the definitions of a fixed-term contract, an apprenticeship contract, a qualification contract or a probationary engagement must be treated as open-ended (Labour Code, article L.19).
Three situations then impose additional formalities that condition the regularity of the operation.
| The situation | The formality | The text |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed-term contract | Writing is compulsory; failing that the contract is presumed to be open-ended. A fixed-term contract may not exceed two years, and may not durably fill a job tied to the normal and permanent activity of the business | L.21 and L.22 |
| Fixed-term contract of more than three months | Filing by the employer with the competent labour inspectorate, before performance begins | L.21 |
| Worker installed away from their place of residence | Recorded in writing after a medical examination, and filed with the regional labour inspectorate of the place of performance for opinion | L.26 |
| Foreign worker | Contract recorded in writing in every case and submitted for approval to the National Labour Directorate, with a work permit | L.26 |
The most common error: filing every fixed-term contract, or none
Filing with the inspectorate concerns only fixed-term contracts of more than three months. A two-month contract need not be filed; a six-month contract must be, and before performance begins, not the following month.
For contracts subject to approval under article L.26, the Code sets two distinct deadlines: the employer must submit the contract for approval within 15 days of the start of performance for contracts of six months or less, and within 30 days for longer contracts. If the authority has not given its decision within fifteen days of receipt, approval is deemed granted (Labour Code, article L.29).
Two points on foreign workers are often misunderstood: a foreign national recruited locally is not treated as an expatriate; and during the first two years of permanent residence in the country, a foreign national may only work as an employee under a fixed-term contract, unless a reciprocity convention provides otherwise (Labour Code, article L.26).
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5. Probation exists only if it is in writing
Probation is not automatic. A probationary engagement must be expressly stipulated in writing, and it may take the form of a specific contract. It states the job and the occupational category of the worker, and the duration of probation, in principle equal to the notice period, but which may be longer up to a maximum of six months including renewal (Labour Code, article L.30).
That longer duration is not free-standing: it is justified to take account of the techniques and practices of the trade, or for workers starting out in their occupation.
A French rule that does not exist in Mali
A scale circulates under which probation would run to "one day per week of contract", capped at two weeks or a month. That scale appears nowhere in the Malian Labour Code. It belongs to another system. The only Malian limits are the six-month ceiling, including renewal, and the principle of alignment with the notice period.
Example. Niger Textile engages an operator on probation for three months. Suppose the applicable collective agreement sets the minimum wage of the category matching the job at XOF 75,000, and the company pays XOF 55,000 "for the probation period".
| The item | What the company does | What the Code says |
|---|---|---|
| Pay during probation | XOF 55,000 per month | Work performed during probation is paid at the rate of the category corresponding to the job for which the worker was hired (L.31) |
| Back pay owed | - | (75,000 − 55,000) × 3 months = XOF 60,000 |
| Effect on seniority | Probation treated as outside seniority | On definitive engagement, probation, including renewal, counts towards entitlements based on length of service (L.32) |
Two further rules close the sequence. Articles L.39 to L.59 (notice, dismissal, severance) do not apply, unless otherwise agreed, to probationary engagements, which may be terminated without notice and without compensation (Labour Code, article L.33). And continuing in service after probation expires, without renewal, amounts to concluding an open-ended contract taking effect on the date probation began (Labour Code, article L.30).
A probation that overruns by a day is no longer a probation. It is an open-ended contract that started on day one.
6. Two declarations, two deadlines, two recipients
This is the forgotten step, and it is twofold. One hire triggers two declarations with neither the same recipient nor the same deadline.
| The declaration | To whom | Within what deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Hiring declaration | To the body that carried out the placement | 15 days (Labour Code, article L.309) |
| Movement declaration (hiring and end of contract) | To the Manpower Office, which forwards it to INPS without delay | 8 days from the start or the end of the work (Social Security Code, Article 163) |
The hiring declaration has a precise content, broader than most expect: the employer's name and address, the nature of the business, the worker's civil status and identity, their registration number, their occupation, where applicable the name and address of their previous employer, possibly their place of origin and date of entry into Mali, and the date of hiring. Where it is made to a fee-charging agency, that agency must forward it to the public body within one month (Labour Code, article L.310).
The eight-day deadline is the shorter and the more often forgotten. Yet it governs what matters most: the provision of benefits is subject to the prior formalities of affiliation and registration, and INPS may charge the employer with the cost of benefits provided to undeclared employees (Social Security Code, Articles 164 and 165).
Neither deadline runs from the end of probation. Both run from the first day of work. See Social security.
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7. A closer look: the employer register, in three parts
The company must keep constantly up to date an employer register, in the model set by ministerial order, comprising three parts: the details of the persons and contracts of all workers employed; all particulars of the work done, pay and leave; and the approvals, formal notices and observations entered by the labour inspector (Labour Code, article L.130).
A company using a computerised file must include all the mandatory particulars in it, and must in addition keep a physical register for the inspectorate's observations. The register, or the computerised listing, is kept for five years after the last entry made.
Finally, the new employee must be given the benefit of the medical or health service every undertaking is required to provide (Labour Code, article L.177), a benefit that extends to apprentices and probationers (Social Security Code, Article 40).
8. The full sequence, in order
- Define the need: permanent or temporary? The answer governs the type of contract, and it is justified in writing.
- Draft the advertisement in terms of job requirements; employer's name and address if it appears in the press.
- Publish on the premises of placement bodies, or in the press.
- Select on the qualifications required for the job, and nothing else.
- Formalise: writing compulsory for a fixed-term contract, probation stipulated in writing, filing or approval as the case may be.
- Declare: eight days to INPS, fifteen days to the placement body.
- Register: employer register, payslip from the first pay run, medical service.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Draft the advertisement in terms of job requirements, and put the company's name and address in it if it runs in the press.
- Charge the candidate no placement fee, and accept no deposit.
- File with the labour inspectorate only fixed-term contracts of more than three months, before performance begins.
- Stipulate probation in writing, pay it at the category rate, and count it towards seniority on definitive engagement.
- Declare the hire within eight days to INPS and within fifteen days to the placement body.
- Open the employee's file in the employer register on arrival, and keep it five years after the last entry.