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Minimum Wage Fixing Convention, 1970 (No. 131) - Morocco (RATIFICATION: 2013)

Other comments on C131

Direct Request

2022
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Article 1(1) and (2) of the Convention. Scope of application. Household employees and workers in purely traditional sectors. The Committee welcomes the Government’s first report, which indicates that the minimum wage system in Morocco covers all workers. Nevertheless, section 4 of the Labour Code, which contains legislative provisions relating to the minimum wage, provides that the employment and working conditions of household employees and workers in purely traditional sectors shall be set out in a special law. The Government points out that two special laws relating to these categories of workers are in the process of being approved. In its 2014 General Survey on minimum wage systems, paragraph 91, the Committee had noted that the Government approved a bill on domestic work in May 2013, which provided, inter alia, that wages shall be agreed between the parties but that the cash component thereof may not be less than 50 per cent of the minimum wage applicable in industry and trade. The Committee recalls that, under Article 4(2) of the Convention, provision shall be made, in connection with the establishment and operation of machinery to fix and adjust the minimum wage, for full consultation with representative organizations of employers and workers concerned or, where no such organizations exist, representatives of employers and workers concerned. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on developments in this respect, and in particular, to indicate whether or not the drafts of the two special laws have been adopted and, if so, to send copies of them.

Furthermore, section 4 of the Labour Code provides that certain occupational categories of employers, fixed by regulation, further to the opinion of the most representative organizations of employers and workers, shall not be subject to the provisions of the Labour Code. To determine such categories, the following criteria are taken into account: the employer must be a physical person; the number of assistants must not exceed five; the employer’s revenue must not exceed five times the amount that is exempt from general income tax. The Committee requests the Government to indicate whether it has availed itself of this possible exclusion from the scope of the Labour Code.

Apprentices. Section 5 of the Labour Code provides that the beneficiaries of training and job placements, and also apprentices, are subject to the provisions relating to employment injury compensation, and also to the provisions of the Labour Code concerning hours of work, weekly rest, paid annual holidays, rest days, public holidays and the relevant limitations. As the Committee pointed out in its 2014 General Survey, paragraph 184, referred to above, the monthly allowance paid to an apprentice may be less than the minimum wage for the sector in question, the remuneration level for apprentices being subject to agreement by the parties concerned (section 8 of Dahir No. 1-00-206 of 19 May 2000). In this respect, the Committee recalls the key principle of equal remuneration for work of equal value: persons covered by apprenticeship contracts should only be paid at a differentiated rate in cases where they are receiving vocational training at their workplace during their hours of work.

Informal economy. In its 2014 General Survey, referred to above, the Committee had noted, in paragraph 402, that one of the greatest challenges lies in ensuring compliance with minimum wage provisions in the informal economy. On this subject, it would like to draw the Government’s attention to Paragraph 18 of the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy Recommendation, 2015 (No. 204), which states that “through the transition to the formal economy, Members should progressively extend, in law and practice, to all workers in the informal economy, … a minimum wage that takes into account the needs of workers and considers relevant factors, including, but not limited to, the cost of living and the general level of wages in their country”. The Committee therefore requests the Government to provide information on the national law and practice relating to the minimum wage in the informal economy, and particularly on labour inspection activities in this context.