Employment law
Health and safety at work
It is 7.20 a.m. in the workshop. The welding station is already hot, the smell of burnt metal is rising, and a welder lifts his visor to see his bead better. Nobody says anything: he is the fastest on the team. Three weeks later he sees a doctor for a corneal burn, and the labour inspector asks to see your safety register. At that moment, only one question matters: who, in your company, was legally bound to protect that man?
The companies named in this article are fictitious and used only as examples.
1. Who answers for safety? The Code gives a blunt answer
Title 4 of the Labour Code applies to establishments of every kind where workers are employed, with no headcount threshold whatsoever (article L.170). A three-person workshop is covered exactly like a three-hundred-worker plant.
A single sentence sets the liability: the employer answers for applying the health and safety measures prescribed by the Code and its implementing texts (Labour Code, article L.172). Not the team leader, not the worker: the employer.
The rule protects because it is logical. The employer chooses the machines, the premises, the organisation and the pace. The worker lives with those choices. Whoever decides is whoever answers.
The labour inspector checks compliance. Before recording an offence in a report, he must first issue a formal notice: a written, dated and signed order stating the offence found and setting a deadline to fix it (article L.174). That is your only window to correct without penalty.
The most common mistake
Many articles circulating in Mali state that « every worker must take care of his own health and safety and that of his colleagues ». That sentence is copied from the French Labour Code. It appears nowhere in the Malian Code.
The consequence is very concrete: you cannot discipline a worker by invoking a Code article that does not exist. You need another basis, and there is only one. That is what section 3 is about.
In Mali, safety is first an employer obligation. It becomes a worker obligation only if you have written it down.
2. What the decree requires of you, station by station
The Code announces general measures of protection, prevention and sanitation (article L.171); Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996 sets them out. It is far more precise than most employers imagine.
- at least 7 cubic metres of air per person in an enclosed workroom, 10 cubic metres in laboratories, kitchens and shops open to the public (article D.170-5)
- at least two exits as soon as more than one hundred people must pass through, one further exit per five hundred, and never less than 80 centimetres wide (article D.170-22)
- a ban on cleaning or greasing transmissions while they are running (article D.170-39)
- a ban on letting a worker near machinery unless he wears close-fitting, non-floating clothing (article D.170-40)
- a safety harness required for any work in a well, pit or tank liable to contain noxious gases (article D.170-30)
- masks supplied, kept in working order and disinfected by the employer before being reassigned, where extracting toxic dust or vapour is impossible (article D.170-4)
- an inspection at least once a quarter of any machine whose defect could cause an accident, recorded in a safety register kept available to the inspector (article D.170-35)
- a daily examination of lifting equipment safety devices, checks on cables and chains every six months and on safety components once a year (article D.170-33)
Hold on to the underlying logic: protection is supplied, maintained and checked by the company. Charging protective equipment to a worker, or asking him to bring his own, discharges you from nothing.
Construction has its own rules
Companies whose staff carry out building work, public works or work on buildings are also covered by Decree No. 2007-375 of 26 September 2007, which sets particular protection and sanitation measures. On a site, checking the 1996 decree alone is not enough.
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3. Work rules: the only text that genuinely binds your worker
Written work rules are compulsory in every industrial, commercial or agricultural undertaking employing at least ten workers (Labour Code, article L.62). Below that threshold they remain possible, and are often the right move.
Their content is strictly limited by law to four matters: the technical organisation of work, discipline, health and safety requirements, and the terms of wage payment (article L.64). Everything else in them is unlawful.
It is this document, and this document alone, that turns « lower your visor » into an obligation enforceable against the worker. Without work rules, misconduct is almost impossible to establish before the labour court.
The procedure, in four steps
- The head of the undertaking sends the draft to the staff delegates, who have fifteen days to submit written observations; silence within that period counts as agreement (article L.65).
- The draft goes to the labour inspector, together with the delegates' observations and, where applicable, the reasons for rejecting them (article L.66).
- The inspector has one month to endorse the rules or require the removal of clauses contrary to law or to the collective agreement (article L.66).
- Once endorsed, the rules are made known to staff by the delegates and permanently posted, in legible condition, in hiring offices and at the workplace (article L.67). They take effect twenty days after endorsement (article L.68).
Failing to draw up these rules, or failing to send them to the delegates, is punishable by a fine of XOF 50,000 to 200,000, rising to XOF 100,000 to 400,000 for a repeat offence (article L.318).
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4. Disciplining a careless worker: what you may and may not do
Once work rules are in place, discipline becomes possible again. But the range is narrower than people think.
Fines are simply prohibited
An employer is forbidden to impose fines (article L.69, restated for wage deductions in article L.121). No deduction « for not wearing a helmet » is lawful, even if the worker signed for it. The offence costs XOF 20,000 to 100,000, and XOF 40,000 to 200,000 with 15 days to 3 months' imprisonment for a repeat offence (article L.318).
Suspension is capped at eight days
Disciplinary suspension suspends the contract and may not exceed eight days (article L.34, 8°). During that suspension no wage is due (article L.38). Beyond eight days, the measure becomes irregular.
Dismissal must be proved, and correctly named
Any employer intending to dismiss informs the labour inspector by registered letter, stating the ground; the inspector has fifteen days to give an opinion (Labour Code, article L.40). Termination is then notified in writing, stating the ground, and requires notice unless there is gross misconduct (article L.41).
The Malian Code does not know « serious misconduct ». It knows only gross misconduct, and it does not define it: it leaves the assessment to the competent court (article L.41). Writing « serious misconduct » in a dismissal letter hands the worker a procedural argument he would not otherwise have had.
The cost of the error can be quantified. A dismissal that is well founded on the merits but notified without writing or without a stated ground exposes you to compensation of up to one month's gross salary (article L.52). A dismissal without a legitimate ground gives rise to damages assessed by reference to length of service, the worker's age and the loss suffered (article L.51), on top of notice and the dismissal indemnity.
Finally, if the worker is a staff delegate, a union delegate or a staff representative on the health and safety committee, the labour inspector's prior authorisation is required before any dismissal (article L.277). See protection of the delegate, disciplinary suspension and notice periods in Mali.
You cannot impose a fine. You cannot suspend for more than eight days. Beyond that, only dismissal is left, and it has to be proved.
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5. The health and safety committee: from what point, and to do what
Above certain headcounts the health and safety committee is not optional (Labour Code, article L.280).
| Type of establishment | Usual headcount | Health and safety committee |
|---|---|---|
| Industrial | 50 workers or more | Compulsory |
| Non-industrial, of whatever nature | 100 workers or more | Compulsory |
| Any establishment carrying out particularly unsafe work | Below those thresholds | Imposed by the labour inspector, one month to comply |
Its composition is set: the head of the establishment or his representative, the officer responsible for safety, the establishment's doctor where there is one, and three staff representatives including one from supervisory grades up to 500 workers; six including two from supervisory grades beyond (Decree No. 96-178, article D.282-1).
Those representatives are elected every three years on the same terms as staff delegates and enjoy the same protection (article D.282-2 and article L.281). The committee meets at least once a quarter, and compulsorily after any accident that caused or could have caused serious consequences. Time spent is paid as working time and may not be deducted from the delegates' hours credit (article D.282-5).
Its duties are to investigate after any serious accident or occupational disease, to check safety devices before any machine is installed, to inspect the establishment frequently, to give its opinion on safety instructions and to organise training for fire and rescue teams (article D.282-6). Findings are recorded in a special register.
Below those thresholds you are not without a relay: staff delegates are tasked with ensuring that health and safety requirements are applied and with proposing any useful measures (article L.278).
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6. The accident has happened: the forty-eight hours that count
The employer must notify the labour inspector within forty-eight hours of any occupational accident or occupational disease recorded in the undertaking (Labour Code, article L.176). The declaration follows the Social Welfare Code.
In practice the declaration is drawn up in four copies on the official forms issued by the INPS: one copy sent directly to the Institute, two to the regional labour inspectorate, the fourth filed in your records and producible on request (Social Welfare Code, article 71). It states the place, cause, circumstances and probable consequences of the accident, together with the victim's identity and occupational grade.
For a commuting accident, it is the victim or his beneficiaries who must inform the employer within forty-eight hours, save in a case of force majeure (article 71 of the same Code).
Two obligations are routinely forgotten. First, a notice drawn up by the INPS to inform workers about the rules on occupational accidents must be posted in every workshop, site or workplace (article 70). Second, a knowingly false declaration is punishable by XOF 20,000 to 100,000 and 3 to 12 months' imprisonment (Labour Code, article L.326).
Finally, in an emergency the labour inspector may order work to stop immediately until preventive measures are taken. The hours lost as a result are paid on the same footing as hours actually worked (article L.175). Stopping a site is therefore not a saving: you pay for it.
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7. What missed prevention really costs
Breaches of the decrees implementing article L.171 are punishable by a fine of XOF 20,000 to 100,000, rising to XOF 100,000 to 200,000 together with 6 to 12 months' imprisonment for a repeat offence (article L.326).
The mechanism that hurts lies elsewhere: the fine is incurred as many times as there are offences, and in particular as many times as there are workers employed in conditions contrary to the law, up to fifty times the maximum rate (article L.335).
Example. The Sahel Métal workshop employs twelve welders with no protective screen.
- Offences recorded: 12
- Maximum fine per offence: XOF 100,000
- Fine incurred: 12 × 100,000 = XOF 1,200,000
- Applicable statutory ceiling: 50 × 100,000 = XOF 5,000,000
Inexcusable fault: the risk you cannot insure
Where the accident is due to inexcusable fault by the employer or his agents, the compensation owed to the victim or his beneficiaries is increased. The increase is paid by the INPS, which recovers it through an additional contribution imposed on the employer. Above all, the employer is forbidden to insure himself against the consequences of inexcusable fault, and whoever committed it answers for it on his personal estate (Social Welfare Code, article 68).
Read that last sentence again. An insurance policy claiming to cover that risk does not cover you: the guarantee is prohibited.
And the careless worker?
This is where, and only where, Malian law penalises the worker who fails to look after his own safety. An accident caused by the victim's intentional fault gives rise to no compensation at all; and if the INPS considers the accident due to the victim's inexcusable fault, it may ask the competent labour court to reduce the pension (Social Welfare Code, article 67).
The penalty is financial and belongs to the judge, not to you. It is not a free-standing ground for dismissal.
Example. The pension due for a fatal accident or for an incapacity of at least 10% may not be calculated on an annual wage below the guaranteed minimum wage multiplied by 1.30 (article 124 of the Social Welfare Code).
- Monthly guaranteed minimum wage: XOF 40,000
- Reference annual wage: 40,000 × 12 = XOF 480,000
- Statutory calculation floor: 480,000 × 1.30 = XOF 624,000 per year
The careless worker loses part of his pension. The negligent employer pays it, out of his own assets.
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Key takeaways in 6 points
- Apply Title 4 of the Code without waiting for a threshold: it covers every establishment, even one with three workers.
- Draw up, have endorsed and post the work rules from ten workers onwards: they are the only text that makes a safety instruction enforceable against a worker.
- Never impose a fine and never suspend for more than eight days.
- Write « gross misconduct », never « serious misconduct »: the Malian Code knows only the first.
- Declare every occupational accident within forty-eight hours, in four copies, and post the INPS notice on every site.
- Treat inexcusable fault as a personal risk: it cannot be insured and is paid out of your own estate.