Moroccan officials, business leaders concerned about cost-of-living increase

2008-04-17

As part of an ongoing social dialogue, Moroccan officials met with employers this week to find remedies for workers' financial woes.

By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 17/04/08

[Sarah Touahri] General Confederation of Moroccan Businesses President Moulay Hafid Alami told Magharebia that while his organisation seeks to improve private sector salaries, global competitiveness "requires us to be extremely vigilant".

A week after holding discussions with trade union representatives on how to boost wages for Moroccan workers, government officials met with business owners on Monday (April 14th) to address the same subject.

While the two parties failed to formulate any specific numbers, they did agree on a course of action on how to help employees, said General Confederation of Moroccan Businesses (CGEM) Vice-President Mohamed Chaïbi. Moroccan Minister for Employment and Training Jamal Ghmani also expressed satisfaction with the co-operative effort to protect Moroccan workers' purchasing power.

"The confederation is completely in tune with the government and the unions" to improve private sector employees' incomes through all possible measures, CGEM President Moulay Hafid Alami explained. Still, he cautioned, global competitiveness "requires us to be extremely vigilant".

"There are boundaries which cannot be crossed, because beyond a certain threshold, steps can become counterproductive and lead to job losses."

Alami conceded that increasing salaries is very important, but pointed out that higher wages alone cannot reduce the impact of national and global inflation. The CGEM wants the government to lower both income and value added taxes.

"People's purchasing power needs to be improved, but solutions on income must be part of a general balanced plan. And that supposes a clear fiscal policy and commitment from the government," Abdelmjid Tazlaoui, who chairs the CGEM’s employment committee, told Magharebia.

Trades unionists, meanwhile, are dissatisfied with the proposals put forward by the government and employers. "An increase in the guaranteed minimum wage of around 2% or 2.5% per year over five years will in no way put an end to the problems of the rising cost of living," said Abderrahmane Azzouzi, Secretary-General of the Democratic Work Federation.

Many Moroccan workers are voicing the same concerns as the union chiefs.

Salwa Taqui, who works in a private company, told Magharebia that those suffering the most under the international trend for higher prices are those with low wages. "Even if the minimum guaranteed wage is increased from 20 to 30%, it will not sort out the problem of the cost of living, which is constantly rising. The government and employers are only talking about an increase of 10% over five years. That’s not a solution. Employees shouldn’t expect anything definite to come out of the social dialogue," she said.

Although business owners maintain that any discussion of wage increases must consider the global economic situation, their argument is failing to resonate with workers.

"They talk about Moroccan businesses' competitiveness and how it must be safeguarded, but that mustn’t come at the expense of the workers," said bank employee Ahmed Ghadouani. "The fact is that the cost of living in Morocco is too high, and has absolutely nothing to do with living costs in China."