Morocco’s PJD Party Faces Mass Layoffs After Election Loss Hits Finances

Faced with a sharp drop in its own resources, the PJD has to choose between laying off its employees and granting them all their rights, as stipulated in the Labor Code, or keeping them and no longer being able to pay their salaries. "We were faced with two things; either we will lay off the employees and grant them their rights, or we will find ourselves unable to pay the salaries in the coming months, which threatens the stability of the employees," a source from the general secretariat of the Islamist party told Hespress. The PJD has chosen the first option. Around 160 employees will therefore be dismissed. The cost of the severance pay that the party must grant them is estimated at 130 million dirhams.

After its historic defeat in the last legislative, regional and municipal elections, the PJD is also unable to finance the completion of the construction work on the central headquarters of the party in the Hay Riad district of the city of Rabat. This work, the overall cost of which is around 38.5 million dirhams, is at a standstill due to lack of funding. "It is normal that the construction work on the central headquarters is stopped, due to the drop in the party’s own resources, and the drop in state support due to the poor results obtained by the party," comments the same source.