Employment law
Work: Working hours
April, Sotuba industrial zone. The mango export season is in full swing and carton orders are piling up at Sahel Emballages. The machines run until 11 p.m., Saturdays included, and nobody counts the hours. Until the day a line operator claims three years of overtime before the labour inspector.
Sahel Emballages and the people mentioned in this article are fictitious: they are used as examples only.
1. What exactly are we talking about?
Sahel Emballages makes cartons in Bamako and employs 60 people. Its director believes that a normal working day lasts 8 hours and that anything beyond is “a bonus”. That is the first mistake: the law does not count in days.
Statutory working time is the number of hours beyond which an hour becomes overtime. In Mali, it may not, in principle, exceed 40 hours per week (Labour Code, article L.131). It applies to every undertaking and every establishment, whatever its size.
The Code sets a weekly limit, not a daily one. You can spread the 40 hours over five or six days. The implementing order provides for several ways of organising work: cyclical hours, successive shifts, individual schedules, part-time work or job sharing (Order No. 96-1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996, article A.131.2). An establishment agreement may organise this distribution within the week. An establishment agreement is a written agreement between the employer and the staff delegates or trade union representatives of the establishment (article L.88).
This rule protects two things: the employee’s health, which requires rest, and their pay, since any excess must be paid at a higher rate.
The most common mistake
Counting in 8-hour days. An employee who works 9 hours on Monday and then 7 hours on each of the next four days totals 37 hours: no overtime at all. Conversely, an employee who works 7 hours a day from Monday to Saturday totals 42 hours: they are entitled to 2 hours at a premium, even though no single day exceeded 8 hours.
The law counts in weeks, not in days. It is the 41st hour that costs more, not the 9th hour of the day.
2. Guards, shops, farms: when more than 40 hours does not mean overtime
At Sahel Emballages, the night guards stay on site 56 hours a week. The director wonders whether he owes them 16 hours of overtime. The answer is no, thanks to the equivalence mechanism.
An equivalence is a period of attendance longer than 40 hours that the law treats as equal to 40 hours of actual work, because the job involves idle time. The wage due is the wage for 40 hours (Labour Code, article L.136). Only the cases set by ministerial order give rise to an equivalence. The list is in article A.136.2 of Order No. 96-1566/MEFPT-SG of 7 October 1996:
| Activity | Weekly attendance equivalent to 40 hours |
|---|---|
| Guarding, surveillance, fire service | 56 hours |
| Sales staff in wholesale and semi-wholesale trade, docks and general warehouses, retail of non-food goods | 42 hours |
| Retail of foodstuffs | 46 hours |
| Hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, maternity homes and similar establishments | 45 hours |
| Bars, cafés, restaurants and hotels | 45 hours for cooks, 50 hours for other staff |
| Hairdressing salons | 50 hours |
| Domestic workers and household staff | 260 hours per month, i.e. 173 1/3 hours of actual work |
Beyond the equivalence period, you leave the mechanism: the extra hours are treated as overtime. A Sahel Emballages guard who stays 60 hours in a week is entitled to 4 hours at a premium.
The case of agricultural undertakings
In agriculture, statutory working time is annual: 2,352 hours per year (article L.131). The order spreads it across the seasons: 42 hours a week from March to June, 46 hours from July to October and 48 hours from November to February (Order No. 96-1566/MEFPT-SG, article A.131.1). In agricultural undertakings, hours beyond 48 per week carry a premium of at least 10% by day and 50% by night (article L.138).
The most common mistake
Applying an equivalence to a job that is not on the list. A sales representative or a receptionist also has idle time, but no text provides an equivalence for them: their overtime starts at the 41st hour.
What you need to do
- Check, job by job, whether the activity appears on the list of equivalences in the order.
- State in the contract the planned attendance time and the actual working time it corresponds to.
- Treat any hour worked beyond the equivalence period as overtime.
3. Overtime: what each extra hour really costs
In April, the Sahel Emballages workshop moves to 54 hours a week. Moussa, a line operator, sees his days get longer. How much is he owed?
Overtime is any hour worked beyond statutory working time or the equivalence period. It carries a premium, meaning a supplement calculated as a percentage of the hourly wage. In the absence of a more favourable collective agreement or company agreement, the minimum rates are as follows (Labour Code, article L.137):
| When the hour is worked | Minimum premium |
|---|---|
| Working day, daytime, 41st to 48th hour | 10% |
| Working day, daytime, beyond the 48th hour | 25% |
| Working day, night-time | 50% |
| Non-working day, daytime | 50% |
| Non-working day, night-time | 100% |
Night work is work performed between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. (Labour Code, article L.141). A working day is a day on which work can normally be performed; a non-working day is the weekly rest day, in principle Sunday. Work on public holidays follows its own rules (Decree No. 2022-0125/PT-RM of 4 March 2022, articles D.145.1 and D.145.2), explained in our article Work: working days.
The premium is calculated on the actual overall wage linked to the performance of the work, not on the base salary alone (article L.137). To obtain the hourly rate of a monthly-paid employee, divide the monthly salary by 173.33 hours, i.e. 40 hours × 52 weeks ÷ 12 months.
Example. Moussa earns XOF 208,000 per month, i.e. about XOF 1,200 per hour (208,000 ÷ 173.33). One week in April, he works 52 daytime hours from Monday to Saturday, plus 2 night hours on Friday, from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Hours 41 to 48, daytime: 8 h × 1,200 × 1.10 = XOF 10,560
Hours 49 to 52, daytime: 4 h × 1,200 × 1.25 = XOF 6,000
Night hours: 2 h × 1,200 × 1.50 = XOF 3,600
Total due for the week, on top of the monthly salary: XOF 20,160
The flat rate that does not protect you
Many companies pay a fixed bonus “for extra hours”. This is allowed, but a flat rate only has effect if it gives the employee at least what the law requires (Labour Code, article L.139). If Moussa receives a fixed bonus of XOF 15,000 for a week like this one, he is short of XOF 5,160.
What an unpaid hour costs
An employee can claim overtime for three years. This is the limitation period: the time after which a sum due can no longer be claimed (Labour Code, article L.118).
Example. Sahel Emballages does not pay the premiums during the 12 weeks of the mango season, three years in a row, for 10 line operators in Moussa’s situation.
Per employee per week: XOF 20,160
Per employee per season: 20,160 × 12 = XOF 241,920
Per employee over three years: 241,920 × 3 = XOF 725,760
For 10 employees: 725,760 × 10 = XOF 7,257,600
On top of these wage arrears comes a criminal fine: XOF 5,000 to 18,000, and XOF 15,000 to 50,000 for a repeat offence (article L.325). It is incurred as many times as there are offences, in particular when several employees are concerned (article L.335).
An unpaid overtime hour does not disappear: it waits three years.
What you need to do
- Calculate the hourly rate of each monthly-paid employee by dividing the monthly salary by 173.33.
- Apply the premium for each band: 10%, 25%, 50% or 100% depending on the rank of the hour, day or night.
- Show overtime hours and their premium on the payslip (article L.105).
4. How far can you go: ceilings and the labour inspector’s authorisation
Paying the hours is not enough. To run 54-hour weeks during the season, Sahel Emballages must first obtain an authorisation.
Overtime to maintain or increase production is limited to 18 hours per week. It requires the labour inspector’s authorisation, granted for three months and renewable. In exceptional circumstances, the inspector may allow this ceiling to be exceeded, provided working time does not exceed 60 hours per week (Order No. 96-1566/MEFPT-SG, article A.140.2).
| Situation | Limit | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Maintaining or increasing production | 18 overtime hours per week | Labour inspector’s authorisation, for three months, renewable |
| Exceptional circumstances | 60 working hours per week in total | Special authorisation from the labour inspector |
| Urgent work: loss of products, imminent accident, repairs | 2 hours per day | Immediate execution required |
| Extraordinary increase in workload | 75 hours per year | Urgent and exceptional work |
The last two rows come under article A.140.1 of the same order. Sahel Emballages works 14 overtime hours a week: it stays below the 18-hour ceiling, but it must file its authorisation request before the season starts.
Recovery and extension: two notions not to confuse
Recovery means making up hours lost because of a collective interruption of work: machine breakdown, power cut, bad weather, shortage of raw materials. These hours are paid at the normal rate, without a premium (article L.134). Recovery may not extend the working day by more than one hour (Order No. 96-1566/MEFPT-SG, article A.134-4). Hours lost through a strike cannot be recovered in this way.
You must inform the labour inspector. If the interruption exceeds one week, recovering beyond the time limits set by the order requires the inspector’s authorisation (articles A.134-3 and A.134-6 of the same order).
Extension means lengthening the day for certain preparatory or complementary tasks listed in the order: running furnaces, maintaining machines, coordinating two successive shifts. These hours are also paid at the normal rate (article L.135).
The common mistake is to call “recovery” the hours requested to absorb a peak in orders. A peak in orders is not an accidental interruption: these are overtime hours, with a premium.
Recovering means making up time lost by accident. Producing more means working overtime.
What you need to do
- Request the labour inspector’s authorisation before any overtime programme, and renew it every three months.
- Keep a weekly count of each employee’s hours so as never to exceed 18 overtime hours.
- Keep the term “recovery” for accidental interruptions, and inform the inspector.
5. Night, women, young workers: the additional rules
To meet deadlines, the workshop manager wants to set up a shift from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. with the female operators of the packing line. He runs into a prohibition.
In industrial undertakings, public or private, women may not be employed at night (Labour Code, article L.186). The prohibition does not apply to undertakings where only members of the same family work, to women holding a management post or a technical post involving responsibility, or to women working in health and welfare services who do not normally perform manual work.
The same article requires a rest of at least 12 consecutive hours for women and children. In industrial and commercial establishments, a woman may not perform more than 10 hours of actual work per day, broken by one or more rest periods of at least one hour (Decree No. 96-178/P-RM of 13 June 1996, article D.189-1). These rules aim to protect the health and safety of women and young workers.
At Sahel Emballages, the team leader who supervises the line may stay until 11 p.m.: her post involves responsibility. The female operators may not. The night shift will therefore be made up of adult men, with overtime paid at a 50% premium.
What you need to do
- Check each female employee’s post before assigning her to hours between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. in an industrial establishment.
- Build schedules that guarantee 12 consecutive hours of rest to women and young workers.
- Apply a 50% premium to any night overtime hour, and 100% if it falls on the rest day.
6. A closer look: what payroll documents must show
Working hours leave a paper trail. The payslip must detail overtime and, for employees paid by the hour, the number of hours worked (article L.105). These entries are copied into the payment register, which you must keep for five years (articles L.107 and L.108).
On the tax side, premiums for daytime, night-time, Sunday and public holiday overtime are included in the base of the tax on wages and salaries (Order No. 99-0892/MF-SG of 18 May 1999, article 2).
Finally, working hours stop where weekly rest begins: at least 24 hours, in principle on Sunday, which can never be replaced by a payment (article L.142).
Key takeaways in 6 points
- Count hours by the week: beyond 40 hours, every hour is overtime, whatever the length of the day.
- Apply an equivalence only to the activities listed in the order, such as guarding (56 hours) or food retail (46 hours).
- Pay a minimum premium of 10%, 25%, 50% or 100% depending on the rank of the hour, day or night.
- Obtain the labour inspector’s authorisation and stay below 18 overtime hours per week.
- Do not confuse recovery or extension, paid at the normal rate, with hours worked to absorb a peak in activity.
- Keep a written record of every hour: an unpaid hour can be claimed for three years.