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Chad - Compensation & Benefit Legislation

CAPITAL

N’Djamena

 

CLIMATE

Tropical climate in the south, desert climate in the north.

 

LANGUAGES

French (official), Arabic (official), Sara and Sango (in south), and more than 100 different languages and dialects.

 

LEGAL SYSTEM

Chad’s legal system is based on French civil law system and Chadian customary law. Chad has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction.

 

CURRENCY

Communaute Financiere Africaine Franc (1 USD = 776.640 XAF as of April 15, 2002).

Note - responsible authority is the Bank of the Central African States

 

CHAD - COST-OF-LIVING

ERI's Relocation Assessor is a recommended source for cost-of-living data.

 

CHAD - EMBASSY/CONSULATES

U. S. Embassy at N'Djamena

Ave. Felix Eboue

P.O. Box 413

N’Djamena, Chad

Telephone: [235] (51) 70-09

Fax: [235] (51) 51-56-54

http://usembassy.state.gov/ndjamena/

 

Embassy of the Republic of Chad at Washington D.C.

2002 R Street N.W.

Washington D.C. 20009

Telephone: (202) 462-4009

Fax: (202) 265-1937

Email:info@chadembassy.org

http://www.chadembassy.org/

 

CHAD - HOLIDAYS

 

CHAD – LEAVE

Maternity Leave: 14 weeks – 50% of pay (paid by social security).

 

CHAD - MINIMUM AGE

The Labor Code stipulates the minimum age for employment in the formal sector is 14 years.

 

(Section 6.d. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Chad – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

CHAD - MINIMUM REMUNERATION

The minimum wage is 25,480 CFA francs per month (approximately $35).

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Chad – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)

 

CHAD - REMUNERATION

ERI's Geographic and Salary Assessors are recommended sources for international remuneration covering 189 countries.

 

CHAD - REPORT OF HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES (2001, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE)

Section 6 Worker Rights

 

a. The Right of Association

 

The Constitution recognizes freedom of association and union membership, as well as the right to strike, and the Government generally respected the right to organize in practice. All employees, except members of the armed forces, are free to join or form unions. However, few workers belong to unions, since most workers are unpaid subsistence cultivators or herders. The main labor organization is the UST. The Teacher's Union of Chad became independent in 1998. Neither union has a tie to the Government. A number of minor federations and unions, including the Free Confederation of Chadian Workers, also operated, some with ties to government officials.

 

The Labor Code ended long-standing legal restrictions on trade union rights; however, there were reports that a 1962 ordinance requiring prior authorization from the Ministry of the Interior before an association can be formed still was in force. The ordinance also allowed for the immediate administrative dissolution of an association and permitted the authorities to oversee associations' funds. The Government allegedly has applied this law to unions on several occasions despite assurances that only the Labor Code would govern the unions, there were no reports of such action during the year. The International Labor Organization (ILO) Committee of Experts has cited the Government for its denial of the right to establish an organization without prior approval. The Committee noted that Ordinance No 27 regulating associations subjects the establishment of associations to the Ministry of the Interior who has extensive power to oversee the management under penalty of dissolution.

 

The Constitution recognizes the right to strike, and the Government generally respected this in practice. Ordinances of the law permitted forced labor imprisonment for participation in strikes; however, there was no such punishment during the year. During the year, there were strikes in various sectors, particularly petroleum and education.

 

The unions were supportive of the opposition and played an active role in the presidential election campaign. On May 30, the police arrested the President of the UST along with six opposition candidates. The Government applied some pressure on the unions after the election, urging them to go back to focusing on labor issues rather than politics.

 

Labor unions have the right to affiliate internationally. The UST affiliates with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions.

 

b. The Right to Organize and Bargain Collectively

 

The Constitution contains only general provisions for the rights of the Government to set minimum wage standards and to permit unions to bargain collectively. The Labor Code has specific provisions on collective bargaining and workers' rights. The Labor Code empowers the Government to intervene in the bargaining process under certain circumstances.

 

The Labor Code protects unions against antiunion discrimination, but there is no formal mechanism for resolving such complaints.

 

There are no export processing zones.

 

c. Prohibition of Forced or Compulsory Labor

 

The Constitution and the Labor Code prohibit slavery and forced or compulsory labor by adults and children; however, there were reports of forced labor practices in the formal economy, and isolated instances of forced labor by both children and adults in the rural sector by local authorities as well as in military installations in the north. In 2000 a local newspaper reported that workers in the National Sugar Company of Chad (SONASUT), the sugar parastatal, were forced to work but were not paid. Some young girls were forced into marriages by their families; these girls then were forced to work in their husbands' fields or homes. There were reports that Zaghawas were conscripted forcibly into the armed forces throughout the year. In December 2000, security forces in N'Djamena reportedly rounded up army deserters and other individuals described as bandits, sent them to the northern military front, and forced them to fight alongside government troops. Ordinances of the law permitted forced labor imprisonment for participation in strikes, which the ILO has requested the Government to repeal; however, the ordinances were not repealed by year's end.

 

d. Status of Child Labor Practices and Minimum Age for Employment

 

The Labor Code stipulates that the minimum age for employment in the formal sector is 14 years; however, the Government did not enforce the law in practice. Children rarely were employed except in agriculture and herding due to the high unemployment rate; however, throughout the country, children worked in agriculture and herding during the year. Children rarely were employed in the commercial sector; however, some children worked on contract with herders, and other children worked as street vendors.

 

Abusive and exploitative child labor existed and affected an estimated 19 percent of children between the ages of 6 and 18 years of age. For example, in 2000 12-year-old Ngaryade Togyambaye and 16-year-old Nanguerimbaya Masrabaye were taken from school and delivered by their father, Ngaryade Victor, to Ahmat Izergue, a herder, for $13 (6,600 CFA francs). Such practices were a consequence of parental resignation, dislocation of the family unit, endemic poverty, lack of appropriate legal protection, demographic and population explosion, and civil war. The instability resulting from civil wars contributed to the Government's limited ability to improve living conditions of children. Despite the ratification of international conventions on child labor, no government policies protecting child labor existed before the National Assembly ratified the U.N. International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor in November 2000.

 

There were reports that in the southern part of the country, families contracted out their children to Arab nomadic herders to help care for their animals, and the children often were abused and returned with little financial compensation for their work. Some children worked as domestic servants in the households of relatives for little compensation.

 

Several human rights organization reported on the problem of the "mahadjir" children. These children, who attend certain religious schools, were forced by their teachers to beg for food and money.

 

The Government worked with UNICEF to increase public awareness of child labor. During the year, the Government cosponsored with UNICEF a number of workshops, seminars, and radio broadcasts to raise awareness of the abuses of child labor and to advocate elimination of the worst forms of child abuse. The labor law states anyone under the age of 18 is a minor, and, in accordance with ILO Convention 182, it prohibits children from undertaking "any work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children."

 

The Government prohibits forced and bonded child labor; however, forced child labor is a problem.

 

e. Acceptable Conditions of Work

 

The Labor Code applies to both foreign and domestic workers and requires the Government to set minimum wages. The minimum wage at year's end was $35 (25,480 CFA francs) per month. Most wages, including the minimum wage, were insufficient to provide a decent standard of living for a worker and family. Nearly all private sector and state-owned firms paid at least the minimum wage, but the lowest public sector wages remained below the minimum wage. The Government increased civil servant's salaries by 5 percent in January 1999, but salaries were not increased subsequently. In 1999 the Government reduced wages paid to the armed forces, which already were well below the minimum wage.

 

The State, which owns businesses that dominate many sectors of the formal economy, remained the largest employer. The Government reduced significantly the large salary arrears owed to civil servants and military personnel, although some arrears remain. Nevertheless, wages remained low and many state employees continued to hold second jobs, raise their own food crops, or rely on family members for support.

 

The law limits most agricultural work to 39 hours per week, with overtime paid for supplementary hours. Agricultural work is limited to 2,400 hours per year. All workers are entitled to an unbroken period of 48 hours of rest per week, although in practice these rights rarely were enforced.

 

The Labor Code mandates occupational health and safety standards and inspectors with the authority to enforce them; however, these standards rarely were respected in practice in the private sector and were nonexistent in the civil service. The UST has alleged before the ILO that the labor inspection service is not allocated the resources necessary to perform its duties. In principle workers can remove themselves from dangerous working conditions; however, in practice they cannot leave without jeopardizing their employment.

 

All workers--foreign, citizen, legal, or illegal--are protected under the Labor Code.

 

f. Trafficking

 

The law prohibits trafficking in persons, and there were no reports that persons were trafficked to, from, or within the country.

 

The Penal Code makes trafficking in persons a crime punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison; however, no governmental organization focused on the potential problem, and no economic or financial aid would be available unless a victim seeks damages in court. The Government has sponsored educational campaigns through the media to advise parents to instruct children about the danger of trusting strangers.

 

CHAD - SOCIAL SECURITY

Social Security Office of International Programs:

 

http://www.ssa.gov/SSA_Home.html

 

CHAD - STANDARD WORKWEEK

The law limits most agricultural work to 39 hours per week, with overtime paid for supplementary hours. Agricultural work is limited to 2,400 hours per year. All workers are entitled to an unbroken period of 48 hours of rest per week.

 

(Section 6.e. Acceptable Conditions of Work, Chad – Report of Human Rights Practices, 2001, U.S. Department of State.)