Moroccan Government And Unions Enter Decisive Talks

The third round negotiations between the Moroccan government and the most representative unions in the country started Monday in a bid to reach an agreement on various social claims, the Premiers office said.

These talks dubbed “decisive” are aimed at taking a decision about the improvement of wage-earners and civil servants’ incomes, the mechanisms for strengthening the freedom of unions, as well as the development of the social security system.

The Moroccan government underscored that the two previous rounds were “marked by a strong spirit of responsibility”.

In addition to the five main unions of Morocco, employers also consider taking an active part in the negotiations chaired by Premier, Abbas El Fassi.

The employers’ organization - the General Confederation of Moroccan Companies (CGEM) - had manifested its availability to “relatively” improve the guaranteed minimum wage while taking into account the “competitiveness” of companies. According to observes, this implies that unions’ observations in this sense “will only be partly satisfied”.

The unions are also claiming the enhancement of the minimum wage to 3000 dirham (400 dollars) as opposed to 1850 dirham currently, and an extension of the tax-free portion on the annual income from 24,000 dirham currently to 36,000 dirham.

Besides, family allowances and retirement pensions must be enhanced to allow households face inflation (officially 2.3% annually) and the increasing cost of living, the unions said.

The government is expected to make alleviating decisions during that third round of negotiations.

The compensation fund, which was used for decades to support the trade of staples, mainly hydrocarbons, sugar, flour, is expected to release about 37 billion dirham (5 billion dollars) in 2008 while the initial budget was targeting 20 billion dirham.

However, the Fund, which is considered to support “vulnerable” social groups, was unable to curb the impact of the price hike on people, particularly for some products that are not subsidized, including oil and butter.

The government has decided to suspend taxes as of next week on the import of wheat, which is largely consumed in Morocco.

Source African Press Agency

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