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KEY DEVELOPMENTS FOR 2021

Local content legal framework

The Senegalese Government approved between 2019 and 2021 a set of statutes defining a completely new local content framework specifically applicable to the oil & gas industry. The ultimate political objective is to achieve a ratio of 50% of local content by 2030, ensure compliance with the obligations and measures to which companies directly or indirectly engaged in oil and gas activities are subject, and issue mandatory guidelines on matters such as the employment and training of local personnel, the use of national goods and services, and the participation by local investors in companies acting as subcontractors, service providers, and suppliers. The National Local Content Monitoring Committee was created as the authority that will define the particulars of each local content policy and supervise compliance by the oil & gas sector companies.

National Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Oil & Gas Sector

Despite being dated from August 2019, the National Collective Bargaining Agreement for the Oil & Gas Sector is an instrument that has not yet been put in practice by many companies since the local oil & gas industry is in its initial stages. This instrument sets out particular rules on working time requirements, work schemes, and salary components that are deviations to the general labour law rules to which the labour and immigration authorities are not used to dealing with and applying. The monitoring of the implementation of this structural Collective Bargaining Agreement will be a hot topic in the coming years.

Remote working

Due to the general silence of the law on this topic, the rules applicable to remote working are very complex. Employers have been required to combine and harmonise statutes and procedures that do not deal directly with this particular work scheme that has been widely implemented in the pandemic scenario. As a result, this topic and all associated implications will to continue to be a very hot topic in Senegal.