Makhzen Government Under Fire from Morocco’s Working Class as Labour Policies Deepen Exploitation

In a sharply worded statement, Taqatoua argued that the steep rise in prices, combined with the freezing of wages, can no longer be treated as a neutral economic indicator. Instead, it has become a direct threat to social stability, driving a severe erosion of purchasing power and undermining the basic conditions of dignified living for large segments of the working population, in the absence of any effective public policies capable of curbing inflation or protecting incomes.

The network also pointed to what it described as an intensification of exploitation within workplaces, marked by forced increases in productivity, the generalisation of precarious employment, and the widespread use of short-term contracts, temporary labour and undeclared work. Thousands of workers, it warned, are being deprived of social protection and family allowances. These practices, Taqatoua stressed, are no longer isolated abuses but form part of an economic model built on reducing social costs and shifting the burden of successive crises entirely onto the working class.

Workplace accidents represent one of the most alarming manifestations of this reality. Citing available data, the statement reported more than 2,000 deaths each year as a result of occupational accidents and work-related illnesses. Weak safety standards and the spread of unsafe transport—particularly in agricultural areas—have turned daily labour into a gamble that can end in death, exposing the state’s failure to protect workers’ most basic right: the right to life.

Taqatoua placed this social crisis firmly within its political and legislative context, singling out the ratification of what it termed a “repressive anti-strike law” as a dangerous turning point. According to the network, the law has entrenched restrictions on trade union freedoms, facilitated the repression of labour protests and encouraged the use of violence and judicial proceedings against workers, effectively hollowing out the constitutional right to organise and to strike.

The network further warned that the assault on workers’ rights does not stop at the shop floor, but extends to their future social security. It criticised plans for unilateral pension reforms based on raising the retirement age to 65, increasing contributions and shifting towards a points-based system. These measures, it argued, are designed to offload the financial deficits and the failure of economic choices onto workers themselves, rather than pursuing fair and comprehensive solutions.

In response, Taqatoua called for a general wage increase indexed to the cost of living, an end to all forms of precarious employment and exploitation, and the enforcement of strict health and safety standards. It also demanded serious investigations into workplace deaths, full compensation for victims’ families, improved worker transport and tighter oversight of transport companies, including a ban on the use of vehicles unfit for carrying passengers.

Taken as a whole, the statement reflects growing alarm within rights and trade union circles over a social trajectory widely seen as threatening social peace. Critics accuse the Makhzen government of privileging profit and extreme labour “flexibility” over dignity, safety and the most basic social rights of Morocco’s working class—a choice that, they warn, risks deepening social fracture and long-term instability.