No jab, no job: Morocco’s workers face tough measures as covid pass rules become mandatory

Unvaccinated employees of all stripes are threatened to lose their jobs, with many working in the service sector already barred from entering their workplaces, as the effects of imposing Covid-19 vaccination pass become concrete. 

Complaints on social media are rampant with workers who say their employers are preventing them from accessing workspaces, many of whom faced  arbitrary expulsion for lacking vaccination proof.

Within a week of imposing the vaccine pass, vaccination rates in Morocco increased by tenfold, as unvaccinated populations race to get vaccine passes that are made mandatory for workers and users to access public, semi-public and public spaces. 

The government says the increase in vaccination turnout demonstrates the positive effects of imposing the pass on encouraging people to be vaccinated. 

But still, public dissatisfaction is appearing among those who see the pass as a coercive measure that could compromise civil freedoms and cost thousands their jobs, with several protests staged across the country to contest the decision.

Younes Skouri, Minister of Economic Integration had called on the General Confederation of Moroccan Enterprises to adopt a lenient approach with unvaccinated workers by allowing them time to receive their jabs. He called on the Confederation to organize vaccination campaigns for workers before mandating the pass. 

But labor organizations find the vaccine proof  is flouting the law.  Ali Lotfi, head of the Democratic Organization of Labor says “the arbitrary dismissal decisions against some workers are illegal, and do not have a mandatory nature,” noting that “the Labor Code does not give the employer the right to take arbitrary decisions such as preventing workers from entering the workshop.” He stressed that “this behavior falls under the category of abuse of power.”

“There is no legal text that gives the authority to employers to take such measures,” Lotfi explained, in a statement to Hespress, that  the decision is “ illegal and unconstitutional, as it is not framed by a legal text.”

A wider public condemnation of the decision also drew on the absence of clear communication and national discussion around the pass.