2016 ITUC Global Rights Index - Morocco

Social dialogue trampled underfoot in energy sector: The government has repeatedly shown contempt for social dialogue regarding the process of privatising the National Electricity and Water Company, ONEE. Around 9000 workers from the Fédération Nationale des Travailleurs de l'Energie (FNTE, affiliated to the UMT) held a nationwide strike to denounce the authorities' breach of the framework agreement secured after long and painstaking negotiations with the Federation. IndustriALL supported its Moroccan affiliate and expressed deep concern over "the escalation and the lack of social dialogue and negotiation with workers' representatives".

Trade union victory in call centres: After years of fighting, victimisation and dismissals (see 2014 article on Total Call), a few dozen trade unionists, many of them women, were successfully elected during the trade union elections in the call centre sector in June. It marked a great victory for the UMT, which led the campaign. Eleven companies were unionised and almost 20,000 workers out of the 70,000 in the sector are now covered by collective bargaining. By definition, however, working conditions continue to be precarious in these offshore outfits. On 11 June, the employees of SFR subcontractors staged a strike in protest at rumours that the French telephone operator was planning to move the Moroccan hotline to Madagascar.

Two new unions harshly repressed in August: The formation of UMT-affiliated unions in at least two companies sparked very hostile reactions from the employers. In August, the management at Maghreb Steel, near Casablanca, suppressed industrial action by suspending 13 strikers. Also in August, the employer at Med Paper near Tangier, after having fired the leaders of the new union, dismissed every single worker that had taken part in the strike held in support of the trade union representatives. A delegation from Union Network International (UNI), which was on a mission to Morocco at the time, was able to bear witness to the suffering of the workers dismissed from Med Paper. In December, when workers renewed strike action at Maghreb Steel, the management called in the security forces to evacuate the strikers occupying the plant. In both instances, the employers tried to justify their actions by claiming that the strikers were a potential threat to the other workers, and that they had damaged and sabotaged the production unit. The management at Maghreb Steel announced, in a press release, its intention to punish "these criminal acts", and also spoke of "manipulation by outside forces".

In July, the Organisation Démocratique du Travail (ODT) reported the repression faced by an affiliated organisation at Honda-Seat in Rabat. The union's general secretary was dismissed and two other leaders were threatened.