Accounting
Since Law 2025-9 of 21 May 2025, leasing labour to a beneficiary company is prohibited in Tunisia. What this means for an employer-of-record arrangement, what remains permitted, and the compliant routes to employing staff in Tunisia.
27 September 2026 · 7 min read · By MGI BFC
Foreign companies looking at Tunisia almost always ask the same question first: can we put someone on the ground without setting up a local entity? The usual answer offered by international providers is an employer of record, a local company that formally employs the person and invoices the foreign client for the cost plus a fee.
Since 21 May 2025, that answer no longer works in Tunisia.
Law No. 2025-9 of 21 May 2025, published in the Official Journal No. 61 of 23 May 2025, replaced the part of the Labour Code dealing with labour subcontracting. The new article 28 reads, in full:
"Labour subcontracting is prohibited."
The prohibition is general. It draws no line between abusive arrangements and good-faith ones, and it applies whatever the duration of the contract or the standing of the parties.
The prohibition covers any contract or agreement between a labour-leasing enterprise and a beneficiary enterprise under which labour is leased and placed at the beneficiary's disposal. What matters is the substance, not the label: if what is supplied is people rather than a defined service, the contract falls within the ban.
That is precisely the structure of an employer of record. The provider holds the employment contract, the worker performs for the client, and the client pays for the worker. Renaming the arrangement a consultancy agreement does not change its object.
| Who | Penalty |
|---|---|
| Individual | 10,000 dinars fine |
| Legal entity | 20,000 dinars fine |
| Complicit representative or manager | 10,000 dinars fine |
| Repeat offence | three to six months' imprisonment |
Two further consequences matter more than the fines. Article 30 quinquies gives affected workers and the social security bodies a direct claim against the beneficiary enterprise for sums owed: the client can no longer hide behind the provider's default. And the published analysis of the reform notes that workers engaged under a prohibited arrangement acquire the status of permanent employees of the beneficiary enterprise, a point to be confirmed on the text for any given situation, but one that turns an invoice line into a headcount with seniority and termination costs attached.
Article 30 preserves genuine subcontracting of works or services, under three cumulative conditions: the service must require specialised professional knowledge or technical expertise; it must not be the beneficiary's main and permanent activity; and the workers must remain under the provider's direction, not the beneficiary's.
The third condition is the one an inspector tests first. A worker who takes daily instructions from the client, appears on its organisation chart and follows its leave calendar is not under the provider's direction, however the contract is drafted.
Once an entity exists, the employer's obligations are well defined. Social security contributions run at 17.07% for the employer and 9.68% for the employee under the general scheme, to which are added the vocational training levy, the housing fund levy and the occupational accident premium, bringing the total employer charge to roughly 21% of gross pay. Income tax is withheld monthly at source on the progressive scale, and social security returns are filed quarterly.
MGI BFC incorporates the entity, registers it with the social security fund and the tax administration, and then runs the payroll: payslips, withholding, monthly and quarterly filings, expatriate situations. See our payroll outsourcing service, our subsidiary cost simulator and our Tunisia setup roadmap.
General information prepared by MGI BFC from Law No. 2025-9 of 21 May 2025 and the text of the Labour Code. It is not legal advice: the characterisation of a contract depends on how it is actually performed and, in a dispute, on the court's assessment.