- 50 hours for staff of hairdressing, manicure and beauty salons; for staff other than hotel and
restaurant cooks, the duration of presence considered for the determination of equivalents does not
include the periods of time spent on meals;
- 52 hours for taxi drivers;
- 54 hours for staff employed to operate inland waterway vessels;
- 56 hours for day watchmen who are not accommodated and more particularly staff assigned to
security and surveillance operations, and
- 72 hours for night watchmen.
152. With regard to air transport firms, since certain designations do not include actual work throughout
the day at work, a duration of work equivalent to forty (40) hours may be authorized by the labour
inspector upon the advice of the staff representatives, and up to forty-eight (48) hours per week for
baggage handlers and packers, ground and front-line staff, arrivals staff as well as coach and private
vehicle drivers.
153. Article 139 provides that “For certain activities, the forty (40) hours per week rule may be waived
per an Order from the Minister of Labour where the duration of actual work does not exceed ten (10)
hours a day and where the worker gets a rest period of twenty-four consecutive hours in the cycle.”
154. On equality and non-discrimination in access to decent work, Article 4 of the regulatory section of
the labour code provides that “Discrimination in employment and occupational matters shall be
prohibited. Discrimination means: any distinction, exclusion or preference based on race, colour, sex,
age, religion, political opinion, ancestry or social origin, disability, sickle cell anaemia, HIV-AIDS,
membership or non-membership of a trade union or engagement in a trade union activity which has
the effect of compromising or altering equal opportunities or treatment in employment or occupational
matters; any other distinction, exclusion or preference which has the effect of compromising or
altering equal opportunities or treatment in employment or occupational matters.”
155. Article 5 further states that “in all firms, workers shall have the right to express themselves on the
content, conditions of engagement and organization of work through the institutions representing
workers.”
156. Article 6 provides that “heads of firms shall consider persons with disabilities who have the
required qualification when they are recruiting staff. A 5% quota shall apply for any recruitment of
twenty (20) workers and more. The labour inspectors shall in the course of their in-house inspections
check the extent to which employers have discharged the above obligation.”
157. Law No. 2012-45 of 25 September 2012 on the Labour Code of the Republic of Niger has provided
for the following sanctions for any breach of the above-mentioned provisions:
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Article 338: Any employer who takes sex, age, ancestry or social origin, race, religion, colour
and public opinion into consideration to make decisions regarding hiring, discharge and
distribution of duties, professional training, promotion, remuneration, provision of social
benefits, discipline or termination of employment contract in particular shall be punishable by a
fine of between five hundred thousand (500,000) and two million (2,000,000) Francs and a
term of imprisonment of between one (1) and five (5) years or only one of the two sentences.
In the event of a subsequent offence, the fine shall be doubled and the term of imprisonment
shall be raised to between two (2) and ten (10) years.
Article 339: Any employer who takes disability into consideration to make decisions
concerning hiring, discharge and distribution of duties, professional training, promotion,
remuneration, provision of social benefits, discipline or termination of employment contract in
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