Officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Fisheries and farm workers organized two protest rallies last Wednesday outside the headquarters of the ministry and that of the parliament in Rabat. Protesters protested the inequality of the minimum wage with industry, commerce and services. The protests were organized following an appeal launched by the National Federation of the Agricultural Sector under the Moroccan Labor Union (UMT).
In this context, the member of the Federation, Hassen Houijeb, said that farm workers earn around 7.5 $ per day while workers in other sectors are paid 10 $ per day. The applicant explained that this discrimination does not take into account the efforts of farmers and their living conditions.
For their part, officials from the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Fisheries have expressed concern about the government's policy to try to control the wage bill by revising the basic civil service regime. In this context, trade unionists explained that the government aims to change public service contracts to fixed-term contracts – which is being done in the education sector – which threatens the established professional stability by Morocco since the 60s.
The protesters also called on the government to withdraw the strike law, which threatens this constitutional right, and to find out the reasons why workers and civil servants have been on strike.
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