While it was a question of supporting a sector in distress (tourism) and saving some 550,000 direct jobs, declarations to the CNSS to benefit from the lump sum compensation for the benefit of employees in the sector did not exceed 8.6%. Does informal employment represent around 80% of jobs in one of the locomotives of the Moroccan economy?
After more than 8 months of health crisis, it is obvious that the pandemic has brought the Moroccan economy to its knees. An economy that is dying and hanging on to the end of the rope so as not to sink. Among the most affected sectors is tourism, which had to lower the curtains at the very beginning of the pandemic.
It is one of the important engines of economic growth (7% share of national GDP) which has been shut down since March. It is also a hard blow for the job market since the sector is one of the job providers with 550,000 direct jobs in 2019, or nearly 5% of employment in the entire economy.
Unfortunately, with a few exceptions, the sector has been unable to get the engines running again due to the persisting pandemic, borders remaining closed and tourists trickling down. According to the supervisory ministry, this will certainly be the last sector which will return to its pre-crisis levels.
Faced with this situation, the government responded to the distress call from operators in the sector who were putting the future of 550,000 jobs in the hands of the government. The latter managed to sign with the sector a 2020-2022 program contract for the support and revival of the tourism sector. The main objective being the preservation of employees’ jobs and income.
Indeed, by maintaining the fixed compensation for an additional 6 months (from July to the end of December) during the shutdown phase and the restart phase, the State aims to accelerate the inclusion of the most vulnerable workers in the formal circuit. Except that when the informal rate exceeds 80% in a sector considered to be a major component of the Moroccan economy, this is of concern in more than one way.
Objective not achieved
One of two things. Either the State has not managed to achieve the objective of maintaining a minimum of 80% of jobs or the sector is riddled with informality. It must be said that the health crisis not only caused damage but also exposed the dysfunctions of a good number of sectors, particularly that of tourism.
Indeed, after signing the program contract, tourist operators had to declare their employees to the CNSS so that they could benefit from the fixed compensation. However, the number of people in the sector declared to the Fund for the month of July-August did not exceed 42,000 employees. There was a slight increase in declarations for the month of September of 5,200 beneficiaries for a total of 47,200.
An alarming figure since if we add in the best case scenario 15,000 temporary workers and a few hundred employees who are not on sick leave, we wonder where around 400,000 employees in the sector have gone? Does this mean that all these employees have been laid off? Where do they work in the informal sector?
Questions that remain unanswered since no one has been able to give us a clear answer. But what many agree to say is that this crisis has revealed an aberration which is confirmed in full view of all, namely the weight of the informal sector in the tourism sector.
Contacted by us, Mohamed Amekraz, Minister of Labor and Professional Integration, told us that it is not yet possible to immediately interpret the figures relating to the fixed compensation for the sector. “You should know that many activities are not eligible for this compensation measure on the one hand. And on the other hand during the month of July and August the hotels in certain regions did not declare since they were not shut down,” he clarified.
Remember that the support measure provided for by the program contract concerns classified accommodation establishments, approved travel agencies, approved tourist transporters, as well as tourist guides subject to the social security system in accordance with Law 98.15 and 99.15 relating to social and medical coverage of self-employed workers.
Mohamed Amekraz told us in this case that the temporary workers will soon have their agreement so that they can benefit from the fixed compensation.
Who is responsible?
But if certain activities in some regions were able to work during the month of July-August, from September the sector plunged back into an almost total shutdown of activity. In this case, why were there not more declarations, barely 47,200 for the month of September.
When asked about the issue, Lahcen Zelmat, President of the National Federation of the Hotel Industry, tells us that this state of affairs can be explained by two reasons.
“First, companies that did not maintain a minimum of 80% of jobs were not eligible for the lump sum compensation for the benefit of its employees. Secondly, informal employment which represents the largest share, » he said.
And adds that “a large majority of employers in the sector unfortunately do not declare their employees. And responsibility lies with the State, in particular the Ministry of Employment, that of Finance as well as the CNSS. Federations and Associations have never defended fraudsters, quite the contrary. We have always called on public authorities to do their job of control and verification..
Today the non-declaration of employees in this tourism sector is a truth clearer than crystal. Bottom line: thousands of employees (families) in the sector were put in the hot seat. People who found themselves forced out of work overnight without even the possibility of benefiting from the 2,000 DH/month granted by the State.
Unfortunately, this crisis has demonstrated that the informal sector not only undermines the economy but constitutes a structural dysfunction that requires real political will to stem. It’s time to put the sector back on track for sustainability.
source: ecoactu.ma
