Royal Air Maroc Pilot Crisis Deepens Amid Safety Concerns and Labor Disputes

The situation between the Moroccan Airline Pilots Association (AMPL) and its employer does not bode well for a prompt end to the crisis. "We have been victims of social cleansing and targeting due in particular to the accumulation of conflicts with our employer for five years," said a member of the AMPL, adding the lack of safety within the company that cost the life of a 27-year-old pilot in 2017.

The AMPL also blames RAM for exploiting the payroll of airline pilots as one of the reasons for its deteriorating financial situation, since it is possible that "it is a problem of governance with exorbitant operating costs," it added. "We proposed to RAM a saving of 400 million dirhams (more than 37 million euros) with a salary reduction for the 500 members of the AMPL over three years, but it refused, preferring to lay off 65 pilots for 250 million dirhams. About thirty lawsuits are underway for unfair dismissal," specified a member of the AMPL.

Subsequently, the company went through a serious crisis in 2018, the likes of which it had never known since its creation. Thus, RAM was accused of the "strikes" of its pilots which led to the cancellation of 260 flights in nearly six months with a loss of nearly 450 million dirhams. Not to mention the increase in the salaries of the 280 captains and 260 airline pilots which cost the company 85 million dirhams.

So many grievances that RAM has not accepted, which has taken legal action. On November 25, 2020, reports Jeune Afrique, the court of first instance in Casablanca had decided to dissolve the AMPL, on the grounds that it does not have the capacity to defend the employees or conduct negotiations in their favor.

However, despite all these conflicts, RAM managed to obtain social peace with its airline pilots in March 2019. Thus, the company transported 7.3 million passengers, on board 57 aircraft to 99 destinations. But in 2020, the health crisis turned everything upside down.