After more than sixty years of constitutional ambiguity,Morocco has finally adopted a legal framework regulating the right to strike. The organic law,published in the Official Bulletin on March 24,2025,will take effect next week,according to L’Economiste.
Although the Constitution guaranteed this right as early as 1962,no application text existed until now. The new law aims to balance a fundamental freedom with two priorities: maintaining public order and safeguarding essential services. It recognizes strikes as legitimate tools of social and professional protest but places them within a structured framework involving unions,employers,and the state.
The legislation defines a strike as a temporary,collective suspension of work for social,economic,or professional claims. Its scope is broad,covering private employees,civil servants,domestic workers,and even the self-employed. Strict procedures are introduced: formal notification,mandatory negotiation,and pre-announced deadlines—45 days in the public sector and 15 in the private sector when claims are filed. Exceptions are allowed in cases of imminent health or safety risks.
The law prohibits obstructing either the right to strike or the freedom of non-strikers to work. Employers may not replace striking workers or shift production elsewhere. In return,legally compliant strikers gain protection from disciplinary or discriminatory measures.
Key sectors such as healthcare,justice,energy,transport,and telecommunications are subject to minimum service requirements. Security forces,judges,and diplomats remain excluded from the right altogether.
Sanctions include fines ranging from 1,200 to 100,000 dirhams,doubled in case of repeat offenses. The effectiveness of this long-delayed reform,experts note,will ultimately depend on how it is applied in Morocco’s tense labor market.
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