Employment law
Public holidays in Mali: rest, maintained pay and hours worked
A public holiday in Bamako: the streets are quiet and the Clinique Kènèya's reception office has closed its shutters. Upstairs, the nurses on duty start their shift at 3 p.m. and will finish at 11 p.m. When preparing the payroll, the accountant hesitates: should these hours be paid double, paid at a premium, or should the salary stay the same? A mistake here repeats itself at every holiday and on every payslip.
The Clinique Kènèya is a private clinic in Bamako with 40 employees: nurses and care assistants organised in shifts, secretaries, and cleaning staff paid by the day. This company and the people mentioned are fictitious: their names are used for illustration only.
1. What exactly are we talking about?
A paid public holiday (jour férié, chômé et payé) is a statutory holiday on which work stops (it is a non-working day) with no loss of pay for monthly-paid employees (it is paid). The list of these days is set by law (Labour Code, article L.145). The Labour Code does not list them itself: it refers to that separate text, and to a decree for the pay rules.
These rules are set out in articles D.145-1 and D.145-2 of Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, as amended by Decree No. 2022-0125/PT-RM of 4 March 2022. They allow everyone to take part in national and religious holidays without losing their monthly pay.
The most common mistake
Confusing public holidays with weekly rest. Weekly rest comes round every week and can never be replaced by money. Public holidays follow their own regime, set by decree. When the authorities grant an exceptional paid day off during the year, read the text that decrees it: it sets the scope.
A public holiday stops the work. It does not stop the month's pay.
2. The principle: compulsory rest, maintained pay
On paid public holidays, rest is compulsory for all staff in agricultural, industrial, craft and commercial establishments. The only exceptions are establishments or services which, because of the nature of their activity, cannot interrupt work (Decree No. 2022-0125/PT-RM, article D.145-1). A public holiday off may not reduce monthly or weekly salaries.
How the employee is paid changes everything (article D.145-2):
| Employee | Public holiday not worked | Public holiday worked |
|---|---|---|
| Paid monthly | Normal salary, with no reduction | Normal salary, which does not increase merely because of the work that day, plus the payment due under article D.145-1 |
| Paid by the hour or day | No pay for that day | Pay for the hours scheduled, plus the payment due under article D.145-1 |
At the Clinique Kènèya, the reception office closes. Kadiatou, a secretary paid monthly, receives her full salary. Bréhima, a cleaner paid by the day, receives nothing for that day if he does not work.
What an unlawful deduction costs
Deducting a day's pay from a monthly-paid employee because the day was a public holiday is a mistake. The employee can claim the amount for three years (Labour Code, article L.118).
What you need to do
- Close the services that can interrupt their activity on public holidays.
- Maintain the full salary of monthly-paid employees.
- Distinguish, on the payslip, employees paid monthly from those paid by the hour or day.
3. Working on a public holiday: who may, and at what price
Only establishments or services that cannot interrupt their activity may have staff work on a public holiday (D.145-1). The Clinique Kènèya's care units are among them; its reception office is not.
Employees working that day keep their pay and are also entitled to a payment calculated in accordance with articles L.137 and L.138 of the Labour Code (D.145-1). These articles set the premiums for non-working days: 50% for a daytime hour, 100% for a night-time hour (Labour Code, article L.137). Night work is work performed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. (Labour Code, article L.141). A collective or company agreement may provide higher rates.
Hours on the rota
Aïcha, a nurse paid XOF 173,330 a month, works her usual shift from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on the public holiday. These 8 hours are part of her normal week: her monthly salary already covers them and does not change (D.145-2). The additional payment, calculated at the rates for non-working days, is added on top.
Example. Payment due to Aïcha for her public holiday shift.
Hourly rate: 173,330 ÷ 173.33 = XOF 1,000
3 p.m. to 9 p.m., 6 daytime hours: 6 × 1,000 × 50% = XOF 3,000
9 p.m. to 11 p.m., 2 night-time hours: 2 × 1,000 × 100% = XOF 2,000
Payment due on top of the monthly salary: XOF 5,000
Hours on top of the week
If Aïcha had already worked her 40 hours that week, these 8 hours would also be overtime worked on a non-working day. They would then be paid in full, premium included (L.137).
Example. The same 8 hours, worked beyond the week's statutory working time.
6 daytime hours: 6 × 1,000 × 1.50 = XOF 9,000
2 night-time hours: 2 × 1,000 × 2 = XOF 4,000
Total due for these hours: XOF 13,000
The most common mistake
Applying a single rate to all the hours. A 50% premium on all eight of Aïcha's hours would give XOF 4,000 instead of XOF 5,000 in the first case. The split between day and night is not a detail. For details of the rates, see Overtime.
What you need to do
- Check that the service is indeed one that cannot interrupt its activity.
- Count the daytime and night-time hours worked on the public holiday separately.
- Check whether these hours are on top of an already full week, so the right calculation is applied.
4. Sunday is not a public holiday
Weekly rest is compulsory. It lasts at least 24 hours, takes place in principle on Sunday and can never be replaced by a payment (Labour Code, article L.142).
Some guides divide companies into "continuous services", "discontinuous services" and "essential activities" to say who may work on Sunday. This classification appears in no Malian text. The rule is as follows: only establishments whose activity cannot stop without serious inconvenience to community life may give rest on a rota basis, on a day other than Sunday (Labour Code, article L.143). They are listed in Order No. 96-1566 of 7 October 1996 (article A.144-2).
This list includes in particular hospitals, maternity units and clinics. The Clinique Kènèya may therefore organise rest for its care teams on a rota basis. Each carer who works on Sunday must have 24 hours' rest on another day of the week. For organising rotas, see Working hours.
What you need to do
- Check that the establishment is on the order's list before organising rest on a rota basis.
- Give every employee who works on Sunday 24 hours' rest on another day of the week.
5. Public holidays and overtime: how to count
The question comes up often: does a public holiday not worked count as working time when calculating overtime?
The Code applies a premium to "every hour worked" beyond statutory working time (L.137). A public holiday off is paid to monthly employees (D.145-2), but no hour is worked that day. If, in a week that includes a public holiday off, a care assistant works four 10-hour days, he has not exceeded 40 hours worked: no overtime premium is due.
Conversely, hours actually worked on the public holiday are counted and give rise to the payment described above. A collective agreement may provide for a more favourable count: check it.
What triggers the premium is the work done that day, not the public holiday itself.
What you need to do
- Count overtime on the hours actually worked during the week.
- Check the applicable collective agreement before applying the statutory count.
6. What to put in place
For the Clinique Kènèya, three tools are enough to secure public holiday payroll.
- An up-to-date calendar of the year's paid public holidays, supplemented by any exceptional days decided during the year.
- A list of services that keep running on public holidays, and of those that close.
- A timesheet that distinguishes, for each employee present, daytime hours, night-time hours and hours beyond the normal week.
Overtime must appear on the payslip (Labour Code, article L.105). An accurate timesheet makes it possible to justify every amount in an inspection or a claim.
What you need to do
- Keep the public holiday calendar up to date from the start of the year.
- Send payroll a detailed timesheet for each public holiday worked.
- Show the premium hours on the payslip.
A closer look: domestic staff
Domestic employees follow specific rules, set by Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996 (article D.86-21).
- Statutory holidays off do not lead to any reduction in pay.
- Hours worked on a statutory holiday, with the employee's agreement, are paid through a payment equal to the wages for those hours. At the employee's request, they may be replaced by equivalent compensatory rest, taken within the same week or the following two weeks.
- Hours worked on a statutory holiday on top of the weekly schedule are overtime, paid under the rules specific to domestic staff (article D.86-19): a 50% premium by day and 100% at night on non-working days.
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Close the services that can interrupt their activity: rest is compulsory on public holidays.
- Maintain the full salary of monthly-paid employees, even if the day is not worked.
- Keep public holiday work for services that cannot stop.
- Pay employees who work a supplement of 50% for daytime hours and 100% for night-time hours.
- Pay in full, premium included, public holiday hours that exceed the week's statutory working time.
- Do not confuse public holidays with Sunday: weekly rest is always given, on another day if necessary.