Moroccan Civil Servants Plan National Strike Over Pay Dispute with Interior Ministry

The union coordination of local authorities, which includes the CDT, UGTM, FDT and UMT and the Democratic Organization of Local Authorities (ODCL), plans a national strike on Wednesday and Thursday, February 7 and 8, as well as the organization of a protest march in Rabat followed by a sit-in in front of the Ministry of the Interior, reports the daily Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. It is demanding a general increase in salaries. Gathered last week in Rabat, the representatives of the coordination denounced "the deplorable conditions in this sector following the collapse of the purchasing power of civil servants and the restriction of trade union freedoms in the face of the persistence of the Ministry of the Interior to close the door to dialogue," but also the pressures exerted by the supervisory department on the elected council presidents to proceed with the deductions from the salaries of the strikers. This, according to them, is a blatant violation of the provisions of the 2011 Constitution.

The Democratic Organization of Local Authorities (ODCL) calls on the Ministry of the Interior to rehabilitate the local public service, enhance the role of human resources, improve their material and moral situation and lift all forms of injustice, inequality and negative discrimination against them. It insists on the need to accelerate the implementation of a fair and incentive-based status that values the officials of the local authorities. The trade union organization expects the department of Abdelouafi Laftit to resume dialogue and meet the just and legitimate demands of the officials of the local authorities.