The social dialogue between the Akhannouch government and the most representative trade unions as well as the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises (CGEM), like any self-respecting social dialogue, is marking time, it is a fact!
Negotiations have come up against many issues for years (the right to strike, union representation, the labor code, pension reform, trade union freedoms, wage increases, etc.).
This tripartite national social dialogue is stalled and it is neither institutionalized nor regular and therefore, it is reduced to its simplest expression. Even if some can see there on the part of the Executive, a certain will to institutionalize the mechanisms of a lasting and effective dialogue, to promote the Moroccan “social model”, through historical agreements, the truth remains another because dependent on the political situation in Morocco.
Soon a year will have passed since late April of last year when each sang the other’s praises after they put their signatures to the bottom of the famous Labor Day Eve parchment. It is clear that we have not advanced and that the blockage remains in place. We come up against the main points on which the unions, employers and the executive have agreed during the past financial year. The general increase in wages, the law on the right to strike, the reform of the pension system, for the working people it is total disappointment and disillusionment, hence a blow of discontent, all the more so as Lady inflation is making his by beating all the records.
There is no doubt that Morocco has embarked on far-reaching social and economic reforms. Their success depends on the quality of social dialogue and its institutionalization, which goes beyond simple consultation, as is currently the case.
Also for the implementation and monitoring of the social agenda, this presupposes a real revolution of minds both on the part of the public authorities and the social partners. But what do we see if not that all the prospects for social reform for 2023 have all been blocked. And to think that next month will begin the round which could be decisive.
The responsibility is shared. DOn the one hand, the executive and the employers remain inflexible to the “legitimate” desire of the working people who do not seem to want to be satisfied with the little offered, especially since with the current economic inflation, the pocket of the employee suffers enormously . Also, they condition this blocking situation by improving the purchasing power of workers. Driven by their base, the unions today more than ever demand first a revaluation of wages commensurate with inflation which has a severe impact on the housewife’s basket.
As a result, we look at each other in earthenware eyes on both sides, apart, perhaps, from the CGEM which claims to have fulfilled its commitments accusing the Executive and the most representative unions of not honoring theirs.
In this context, in this fateful month, we can safely predict that the tripartite negotiations in April will be difficult, if not impossible. The social agenda for the current year in which are listed, the promulgation of the law on strikes, the Labor Code, the pension reform, … risks being shattered.
If it is true thate under other skies, social dialogue tends to calm the logic of tensions, in Morocco it is as it were the end of a stillborn love of a threesome that we had nevertheless believed to be dead.see you at the end of April. More than ever, some already revel in this marivaudage with drawn knives. Say that we aspired to establish a culture of negotiation, compromise and responsibility is going a little too far.
Admittedly, over the past three decades, the national tripartite social dialogue has achieved some achievements, so all these beautiful people would benefit from raising obstacles, in order to ensure the sustainability of the social and economic reforms that it has in common projects.