OVERVIEW OF THE EMPLOYMENT CODE

EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT
The Employment Code recognizes three types of contract:
• Employment contract for an indefinite duration
• Employment contract for a fixed duration

the replacement of an employee by another in the case of suspension of the employment contract of the latter,
except where the suspension is the result of a state to strike

the temporary increase in activity of the company

if it's a seasonal job.
In the agricultural sector, fixed-term contracts are for six months with the option of renewal for a total duration of two years, after
which the contract becomes indefinite. In other sectors, fixed-term contracts have a maximum duration of one year and can only be
renewed once. Again, after the two years the contract becomes indefinite.
• Employment contract to carry out a specific job.

OFFICIAL AGE FOR STARTING WORK

Minors cannot be employed or admitted by employers until they are 15 years old.

DURATION OF WORK
Activity Hours per year Hours per week

Industry, commerce and liberal 2288 hours 44 hours

professions (Decree 2-04-569 of 29 December 2004 – BO 5280 of
6 January 2005)
Agricultural sector 2496 hours Varies according to the needs of the crops.
(Order of the Ministry of Employment 340-05 of 9
February 2005 – BO 5540 of 5 July 2007)

OVERTIME
Overtime means work done outside the employee’s usual working hours. It is remunerated with a single payment together with wages
due.
Regardless of however the employee is paid, overtime is charged at the following extra rates:
• 25% if done between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. for non-agricultural work and between 5 a.m. and 8 p.m. for agricultural work;
• 50% if done between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. for non-agricultural work and between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. for agricultural work.

The extra rates are 50% and 100%, respectively, of the overtime is worked on an employee’s rest day, even if the day in question is
offset.

WEEKLY REST TIME

It is compulsory to arrange a weekly rest period of at least 24 hours, from midnight to midnight, on Friday, Saturday, Sunday or, in rural
areas, the local weekly-market day.
Weekly rest must be granted simultaneously to all the employees working at a single workplace, unless the employment authorities
approve otherwise.

BANK HOLIDAYS AND PAID HOLIDAYS

Employees cannot be forced to work on paid or unpaid public holidays.
However, at workplaces requiring continuous presence because of the nature of the work done there or where a rota has been
established for weekly rest periods, working hours may be uninterrupted over such paid or unpaid public holidays.
Public holidays may be arranged to be paid as effective work time.

List of public holidays, rest days or paid holidays

Bank holiday Date
Anniversary of the Manifesto of Independence (1944) 11 January
Labour Day 1 May
Throne Day 30 July
Oued Ed-Dahab Day 14 August
Anniversary of the Revolution of the King and People (1953) 20 August
Birthday of HM King Mohammed VI 21 August

Investment Guide 11 updated: 11/16/2015

 Anniversary of the Green March 6 November
Independence Day 18 November
Hegira 1 moharram
Birth of the Prophet 12 rabii 1
Aïd al Fitr (end of month of Ramadan) 1er chawal
Aïd al Adha (Sacrifice Festival) 10 doul hijja
Source: Decree 2-04-426 of 16 kaada 1425 (29 December 2004, fixing the list of paid public holidays for industrial and commercial employers, liberal professions, and farming
and forestry operations)

PAID HOLIDAY ENTITLEMENT

All employees, after six months’ continuous service at the same company or for the same employer, are entitled to a certain number of
paid days off. The number of such days is fixed as follows:
• one day and a half of effective work per month worked;
• two days of effective work per month worked for employees aged under 18.
This duration is increased by a day and a half of effective work per full period, whether continuous or otherwise, after five years worked,
without this increase meaning that the total duration of free days is greater than 30 days of effective work.
The period of paid free days is distributed over the full year.

“Days of effective work” do not include weekly rest days, paid public holidays or public days of rest.

MEDICAL SERVICES AT WORK

Industrial, commercial and crafts enterprises, farming and forestry operations and their workplaces with at least 50 employees, and
those whose activities expose workers to the risk of illness, must set up an independent medical service at work.
Those that employ fewer than 50 workers must have independent or common medical services at work, meeting the conditions fixed by
the authorities.
The functioning of medical services at work is assured by one or more doctors, known as “workplace doctors”, who must exercise their
duties in person.
The costs of organisation and control of medical services and the remuneration of workplace doctors must be borne by the employer or
intercompany service.
Medical services at work (independent or intercompany) must assure the availability of full time qualified social workers or nursing staff.

WAGES AND SENIORITY SUPPLEMENT

Salaries are determined freely by agreement between the parties or under collective-bargaining agreements, subject to the relevant legal
minimum-wage provisions.
Unless salaries are based on seniority under a clause of the employment contract, internal regulations or a collective-bargaining
agreement, all employees must benefit from a seniority bonus, the sum of which is determined as follows:
• 5% of the salary paid, after two years worked;
• 10% of the salary paid, after five years worked;
• 15% of the salary paid, after twelve years worked;
• 20% of the salary paid, after twenty years worked;
• 25% of the salary paid, after twenty-five years worked.

LEGAL MINIMUM WAGE

The legal minimum wage represents the minimum value paid to the employee.
It is calculated as follows:
• for non-agricultural work, based on the remuneration paid to the employee for one hour’s work;
• for agricultural work, based on the remuneration paid for one day’s work.
Any individual or collective agreement for remuneration below the legal minimum wage is legally null and void.

Activities Legal minimum wage Effective date

Sectors of industry, commerce and 13.46 dirhams per hour 01/07/2015
the liberal professions
Agricultural sector 69.73 dirhams per day 01/07/2015

Investment Guide 12 updated: 11/16/2015

TRADE UNIONS (s 396-429 Employment Code Act 1999, No. 65/99)
The purpose of trade unions is to defend study and foster economic, social, moral and professional interests, whether individual or
collective, that improves the level of training of their members.
They may be set up freely by persons who exercise the same profession or trade, similar professions or trades that involve the
manufacture of a product or the rendering of certain services, regardless to the number of employees at the company.

Employers and employees may freely join the trade union of their choice.
Members responsible for running and managing trade unions must be Moroccan citizens, enjoying all their civil and political rights and
with no custodial criminal record.

Each company’s union representative may be given time off, to be agreed with the employer, to participate in training sessions,
conferences, seminars or national and International trade-union meetings.

TRADE-UNION DELEGATES (s 430-463 Employment Code Act 1999, No. 65/99)

Employees’ delegates must be elected at all workplaces where at least ten (10) workers are permanently assigned.
Their mission is:
• to submit any claims regarding working conditions to the employer;
• to be the workers’ representative before the Employment Inspectorate, if no agreement can be reached.

COMPANY COMMITTEES
The company committee is a consulting body set up at firms with at least 50 employees.
It consists of:
• The employer (or representative);
• Two trade-union delegates elected by the company’s employees;
• One or two receiver’s representatives, if the company has been wound up.

Its mission is to fulfil a consulting role on the following issues:

• Structural and technological changes to be made within the company;
• The company’s balance sheet since its approval;
• The company’s production strategy and means of increasing profitability;
• The preparation of social projects to improve pay and execute them;
• Programmes for learning, insertion training, combating illiteracy and the ongoing training of employees.

EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN WORKERS

Any employer wishing to employ a foreign worker must obtain authorisation from the employment authorities. This authorisation takes
the form of a visa based on the employment contract.
The visa date is the date on which the employment contract comes into effect.

RETIREMENT AGE
The retirement age is fixed at sixty years (60)old; with the possibility for the employee to continue working with the employer’s consent if
the latter applies for and obtains the employment authorities’ approval. For workers in the mining sector, the retirement age is fixed at
fifty-five (55) years. Employers are obliged to replace each employee who retires with another worker.

EMPLOYMENT INSPECTIONS
The Employment Inspectorate is made up of:
• Employment and social-affairs inspectors and monitors;
• Inspectors and monitors of social legislation in agriculture;
• Relevant agents of the mining authorities in respect of employment inspections at mining companies;
• Any agent designated as an employment inspector by any other authority.

Their duties include:

• Enforcing employment-related legislation and regulations;
• Providing information and technical support for employers and workers by the most effective means, in accordance with the relevant
legislation;
• Informing the employment authorities of any loopholes or obsolete provisions in the currently applicable legislation and regulations;
• Strive to settle any individual employment disputes.

They are obliged to submit a report of every inspection visit made.

COLLECTIVE DISPUTE REGULATIONS

Investment Guide 13 updated: 11/16/2015
A “collective employment dispute” means any employment-related dispute in which one of the parties is:
• A workers’ trade union organisation or workers’ group whose purpose is to defend workers’ collective professional interests;
• One or more employers or a professional association of employers whose purpose is to defend the those employers’ or
organisation’s interests.

Any industrial issue prone to involving a collective dispute susceptible is the subject of an attempt to settle:
1- At the employment-inspectorate level;
2- If no settlement can be reached, the dispute is referred to the provincial investigation and mediation commission, chaired by the
governor of the prefecture or province;
3- If, again, no settlement can be reached, the dispute is referred to the national investigation commission, chaired by the
employment minister or his representative;
4- If, yet again, no settlement can be reached, the dispute is referred for arbitration. The arbitrator is chosen by agreement between
the parties from a list of arbitrators drawn up with the employment minister’s approval. The arbitration process is set up in
accordance with proposals made by the most representative professional associations of employers and trade unions.
5- Appeals against arbitration awards may be lodged only before the social bench of the Supreme Court, constituted as a court of
arbitration.

Settlement agreements and arbitration awards have an executive force.

LEGAL BASIS/SOURCE
Ministry of Employment and Vocational Training – Employment Code

Investment Guide 14 updated: 11/16/2015