ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the principal features of the industrial labor market and the industrial relations system. The modern-sector labor market institutions are in many respects similar to those of other French-speaking African countries. Industrial relations are to a large degree governed by Senegal’s 1961 Labor Code and several subsequent legal provisions. The three main actors on the labor scene are the government, the Confederation Nationale des Travailleurs du Senegal, and the employers’ associations. The chapter describes government regulations in four important areas: hiring, employment contracts, layoffs, and wage setting. These regulations impose the most binding constraints on the functioning of the labor market and are likely to have major efficiency and welfare implications. An employer’s ability to vary the size of the labor force through layoffs is regulated primarily by Articles 45 to 47 of the Labor Code. Senegal’s wage setting system represents a mixture of tripartite and bilateral negotiations, as well as unilateral actions on the part of employers.
