Burkina Faso's new labor code introduces major reforms for worker protection and modern work practices

This reform addresses limitations of the previous 2008 code, which struggled with rapid economic and technological changes. Key innovations include regulating temporary work by limiting its duration to one year and ensuring equal pay for temporary and permanent workers in the same role. The new code also criminalizes moral harassment in the workplace and limits the renewal of fixed-term contracts to a maximum of two times, meaning a worker can only have three fixed-term contracts with the same company.

It harmonizes the maximum duration of fixed-term contracts to two years for both national and non-national workers, eliminating discrimination. The new law increases the cap on damages for unfair dismissal from 18 to 24 months' salary and officially recognizes teleworking to accommodate new work arrangements. Furthermore, it extends paid leave for breastfeeding mothers from 14 to 15 months and increases exceptional leave for family events from 10 to 15 working days.

The threshold for establishing a Health and Safety Committee at work has been lowered from 30 to 25 employees, and the appeal threshold for judgments has been raised from 200,000 FCFA to over 1,000,000 FCFA. The code also improves collective labor dispute resolution by setting a three-month deadline for arbitration awards, which can be appealed to the social chamber