When a public institution ends a contract with a staffing company, does that let it off the hook for the workers caught in the middle? That is the uncomfortable question hovering over ISTC Polytechnique — the Institut des Sciences et Techniques de la Communication, one of Abidjan’s leading public higher-education institutions — as a decade-long outsourcing arrangement approaches its December 2026 expiry date and 59 workers face an unclear future from January 2027 onwards.
A ten-year arrangement reaches its end date
For roughly ten years, ISTC Polytechnique has subcontracted the management of a portion of its workforce to SIPSD (Société de Prestation de Services Divers — a private multi-services staffing firm). According to the institution’s senior management, that arrangement was adopted to align with Ivorian civil-service regulations that govern public establishments. The contract between the two organisations expires in December 2026, at which point the employment situation of the 59 workers involved becomes unresolved.
The issue went public after a press report described the development as a “brutal decision to dismiss 59 staff.” ISTC Polytechnique pushed back, publishing a formal right-of-reply on its website on 1 October 2026. Management flatly rejected that framing, arguing that no dismissal decision has been taken against the workers directly: what is ending, they insist, is a business-to-business contract between two legal entities — ISTC Polytechnique and SIPSD — not an employment relationship between the institution and the individuals concerned.
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A legal distinction with very real consequences
The institution’s argument has a basis in law. Technically, the 59 workers are employed by SIPSD, not by ISTC Polytechnique. Under that reading, the expiry of a service contract does not trigger the statutory obligations — notice periods, severance, a formal collective redundancy plan — that would fall on the public establishment itself.
But the practical reality is harder to dismiss. Some of these workers have spent close to a decade performing functions inside ISTC Polytechnique’s own premises, under its operational oversight, with no meaningful distinction from the institution’s direct employees in day-to-day terms. When the work is continuous, the workplace identical and the effective economic employer the same, the line between a contract lapsing and a job disappearing becomes very thin.
This model is far from unique to Côte d’Ivoire. Across anglophone Africa, similar patterns exist: in Nigeria, Kenya and Ghana, public universities and government agencies have long used contract and casual labour arrangements to sidestep the constraints of formal civil-service headcounts. Labour legislation across the continent is increasingly attempting to close these gaps — recognising “deemed employment” where the economic reality of a relationship resembles full-time work regardless of its contractual label. Côte d’Ivoire’s Labour Code contains provisions in that spirit, though enforcement in the public-sector context remains inconsistent.
Vague reassurances, no firm commitments
ISTC Polytechnique says it has been holding information and awareness sessions with the affected workers since August 2026 to help them prepare for the transition. Management adds that it is examining “possibilities that could be proposed to the staff,” taking into account their individual profiles, qualifications, skills and the institution’s own operational needs — all within the bounds of applicable law.
Those are careful words. The institution’s statement makes no mention of how many of the 59 workers might be retained, re-deployed or offered new contracts. It sets out no concrete transition mechanism and gives no decision timeline. With roughly three months to go before the deadline, every one of the 59 workers remains in genuine uncertainty.
A structural problem hiding behind a contractual one
Zoom out and this case points to a broader tension in how public institutions across francophone — and indeed anglophone — Africa manage their human-resources obligations. Outsourcing core operational roles to private staffing firms allows public bodies to keep headcounts off their civil-service registers and avoid the rigidity of public-sector employment statutes. That works, until the contract runs out. At that point, the question of who bears social responsibility for workers whose entire careers have been shaped by service to a public institution cannot simply be dissolved by pointing to a B2B agreement.
ISTC Polytechnique has reaffirmed its commitment to “respect for individual rights, dialogue and the search for appropriate solutions.” Whether that commitment carries weight will be judged by the concrete decisions the institution makes before January 2027 — not by the language of its press releases.
Source: AIP (Agence Ivoirienne de Presse — Ivory Coast’s national news agency), 3 October 2026
