The Moroccan government announced on Thursday a wage increase for 1,127,000 government employees with a budget of $4.5 billion, which will go into effect starting in July, according to Mustafa Baitas, government spokesman, at a press conference in Rabat following a government council meeting.
The government had previously announced an increase in the monthly wages of public sector employees last April, by a value of one thousand dirhams ($100), in addition to raising the minimum wage in the private sector by 10%.
“The increase in employee wages approved by the government within the framework of the previous social dialogue (a gathering of the government, unions and employers) will amount to 45 billion dirhams ($4.5 billion),” Baitas said, describing this number as “very large.”
He added that these increases will come into effect starting this month.
Last April, Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch said that half of the increase would be disbursed as of July 2024, and the second half as of July 2025.
The agreement between the government, unions and employers, following the conclusion of the social dialogue, includes a set of mutual obligations, including, in addition to: wage increases, Involvement of trade unions in preparing texts related to pension reform and exercising the right to strike.
Social dialogue aims to negotiate workers’ demands, such as wages and labor laws such as the strike law and the union law.
The new round of social dialogue began in Rabat last March and ended with the signing of the agreement at the end of last April.
