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Labour law A-Z
Articles, practical guides and legal updates written by our experts.
Personnel management: five domains, one thread
Personnel management: five domains, and one rule running through them, the employer must prove its decisions. …
Poor performance: analyse before you sanction
Poor results are a symptom: before sanctioning, look for the cause, which may be an obstacle at the workstation, a demotivating factor or a lack of competence. Start by observing the workstation, then check the feedback given to the employee and whether he sometimes succeeds at the task. In a dismissal, the employer must prove legitimate grounds. Poor performance is not misconduct: notice and severance remain due, and only gross misconduct removes them.
Poor performance: holding the conversation and building an action plan
Poor performance is a symptom: it may stem from a lack of competence, motivation or obstacles. The manager prepares the conversation with quantified facts, asks three open questions, then builds a written action plan with deadlines and indicators. The manager may not impose fines, deduct from pay, or change pay or post without agreement. Written monitoring also serves as evidence if a termination becomes necessary.
Pre-employment medical examination in Mali
Every worker must undergo a medical examination before hiring or at the latest before the end of the trial period (Social Security Code, art. 43), sometimes within the first 8 days. The examination, carried out by the inter-company medical centre that every employer must join, checks fitness for the job. The time spent is paid. Keep the fitness certificate: a fine of XOF 25,000 to 250,000 punishes failure to apply prevention measures.
Probation and illness: can you end the probation of an employee who falls ill?
Probation ends without notice or compensation, because article L.33 sets aside articles L.39 to L.59. But the ban on discrimination (L.4) and suspension for illness (L.34, L.37) still apply: illness cannot justify ending probation, and the employer pays sick pay. The real risk is the probation end date passing during sick leave: taking the employee back without written renewal creates a backdated open-ended contract. Decide before the end date.
Professional grading: the line in the contract that decides everything else
Professional grading comes from the collective agreement; failing that, the minima per grade set by decree apply, from XOF 40,000 to 49,000. The grade must appear on the contract, on every payslip and on the certificate of employment. It governs the minimum wage, the seniority bonus, the notice period, the retirement age and the electoral college. Downward regrading is a substantial change: it is proposed, never imposed.
Provision of staff: who is the employer, and on what conditions?
Staff provision links three parties through two contracts: the temporary work agency, approved and backed by a financial guarantee, remains the employer. It may be used only for non-permanent assignments of 24 months at most, with written contracts within two working days. A user that keeps a temporary worker after the assignment without a new contract becomes bound to that worker by an open-ended contract. Outsourcing and task subcontracting follow other rules. …
Public holidays in Mali: rest, maintained pay and hours worked
Paid public holidays are set by law: rest is compulsory, except in services that cannot stop. Monthly-paid employees keep their salary, while those paid by the hour or day are only paid if they work. Employees who work also receive a payment of 50% per daytime hour and 100% per night-time hour. Sunday is governed by a different rule: 24 hours of weekly rest.
Receipt in full and final settlement in Mali: a useful record, not a waiver
In Mali, the words “in full and final settlement” signed at the end of the contract cannot be relied on against the employee and are not a waiver (Labour Code, art. L.110 and L.111). The six-month deadline to challenge it is a French rule. The employee has three years to claim any sum due (art. L.118). Detail each sum paid; to close a disagreement, use conciliation before the labour inspector (art. L.191).
Recruiting in Mali: the full sequence, from advertisement to declaration
Choosing a candidate is free; advertising, formalising and declaring are not. A press advertisement carries the employer's name and address and states job requirements only (L.307, L.4), and placement costs the candidate nothing (L.304). Only fixed-term contracts over three months are filed with the inspectorate before performance begins, and probation must be in writing, six months at most (L.21, L.30). Two declarations follow the hire: eight days to INPS, fifteen to the placement body.
Redeployment and advancement: one word, two regimes not to be confused
Two operations share one name. Medical redeployment is an obligation: an employee found unfit cannot be kept in the post, and failing suitable work the termination is attributable to the employer (L.188). Regrading on the scale is a decision framed by the collective agreement, which also sets up the joint grading committee (L.79). The category governs five quantified entitlements: minimum wage, seniority bonus, notice, probation and retirement age.
Resignation
Resignation must be formalised in writing and opens a notice period of eight days to three months depending on the occupational category, a fixed period that illness does not suspend. Unworked notice must be paid, and an absent employee's silence never amounts to resignation: abandonment of post is handled by formal notice, then dismissal.
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