Drafting of the new Labor Code

For the president of CIDEF, Lassiné Diawara, such a meeting was necessary to enlighten the members of the lantern on the new working code in preparation (Ph. Yvan Sama)

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After 2004, 2008, Burkina Faso is once again preparing to revise its Labor Code to adapt to the new demands of the world of work. This preliminary draft Labor Code contains 444 articles. Out of the 444 articles, 36 articles were not the subject of a consensus between the National Council of Burkinabè Employers (CNPB) and the Syndicate Action Unit (UAS). What are these disagreements? And where are we with the development process?

It is to get some answers to these questions that the Interprofessional Business Council of Burkina Faso (CIDEF) invited the Burkinabè employers to deliver a communication. This honor fell to the first vice-president of the CNPB, Harouna Togoyéni, on July 1, 2021.

In view of the challenges of this new Labor Code, discussions took a year on non-consensual points, from November 2019 to August 2020. Upon leaving, he says, a lot of water flowed under the bridge, from where obtaining consensus on several points.

Conversely, Harouna Togoyéni points out that there were several other points on which interests were very divergent and there was no agreement. Three major points put the Burkinabè employers in total disagreement with the unions. It is, first of all: the pure and simple suppression that the employer can recruit in his company, temporary workers.

According to Daouda Diallo, spokesperson for the Patronat, this situation is an important element of today’s economic life which companies cannot do without in a globalized system. For him, the entrepreneur has the right to call on a temporary worker who is made available to the company by sworn structures. Second: the removal of the cap on severance pay (the current Code makes the case for 18 months), the unions want a total removal of the cap, where at least compensation at 36 months. Anything that the Patronage refuses, because according to Daouda Diallo, this provision will be a danger. Still on this disagreement, the employers say they have detected a merry-go-round of the unions which, during the talks, were accompanied by labor inspectors and even judges, on this specific case, they say they have the legitimacy to think that these two trades can be biased in cases of litigation. The removal of the ceiling in this case, he says, will simply be blessed bread for the worker. Daouda Diallo goes a long way by referring to the CIMA Code which states that claims indemnities are regulated.

Third, the Patronage refuses that workers can occupy the workplaces of companies (premises, surroundings, parking, etc.) during their strikes. Daouda Diallo evokes the noise, the denial of the right to other workers to work, the kidnapping of employees or premises, etc. As of today, he said, the Patronage has finished its observations and sent the document to the ministry in charge of labor. For Daouda Diallo, certainly in the coming months, the new Labor Code will be adopted by the Council of Ministers, before being then validated by the National Assembly.

For the president of CIDEF, Lassiné Diawara, such a meeting was necessary to enlighten the members of the lantern on the new working code in preparation. He mentioned that it was important to give everyone the same level of information on this tool which regulates the relationship between employer and employee. He felt that an employer could not do without an employee, these are two sides of the same coin, however, he recommends weighting and measurement on the part of some workers. O

Rachel DABIRE

Edition Number: 399

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