For years, nurses and medical technicians in Morocco have been demanding improvements to their status, including adequate hazard pay, better working conditions, and professional recognition. After another round of negotiations with the health ministry fell through, their trade unions announced a new wave of industrial action to achieve these demands.
The actions began on Tuesday, January 16 and will continue till Thursday. A central rally took place in Rabat on Wednesday and more actions are likely to be held next week.
On January 9, nurses and technicians in the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region staged a strike and sit-in in front of the Ministry of Health headquarters. Similar to the ongoing action, their focus was on achieving a salary increase of at least 3,000 dirhams ($300 USD) and aligning nurses’ hazard pay with that of other health professionals, particularly physicians.
The government’s latest offer for a salary increase — 800 dirhams ($80 USD) — amounted to barely over a quarter of the workers’ demands.
Such an offer was perceived as an affront by the health workers, especially considering that deals reached during previous negotiations in the sector repeatedly excluded nurses and medical technicians. Commenting on the January 9 strike, Fatima-Zahra Belline from the Independent Nurses’ Union (Syndicat Indépendant des Infirmiers, SII) stated that, over the past years, all health workers except nurses and medical technicians have seen their salaries raised.
Just as they hoped the new health budget would allow for an improvement in their rights, the Ministry of Health decided to expand negotiations to everyone in the sector, including those who have recently benefited from a salary increase. According to the SII and the Moroccan Nurses’ and Medical Technicians’ Movement (Mouvement des Infirmiers et Techniciens de Santé du Maroc, MITSM), this could lead to an even bigger income gap, increasing dissatisfaction among the workers.
Nurses make up the majority of the health workforce in Morocco and are responsible for many key tasks, yet their role is not valued accordingly, the organizations warn. For example, even during peak COVID-19 periods, nurses’ hazard pay was significantly lower than doctors’. Nurses’ hazard remuneration amounts to approximately 1,400 dirhams ($140 USD), while doctors receive up to 4,500 dirhams ($450 USD) more. In addition to the significant difference in hazard pay, nurses and technicians are also struggling to make ends meet due to the high costs of living.
They are also in a precarious position due to the ongoing commodification drive haunting the health sector, as warned by SII and MITSM. In 2022, a health law package anticipated provisions to decentralize the health system in Morocco. Alongside financial and administrative devolution, the health reform also foresaw changes in nurses’ employment. Instead of making more secure employment the norm, it aimed to allow more space for collaboration with the private sector and introduce non-standard forms of employment among health staff — not unlike changes that had already proven harmful when implemented in the education sector.
The combination of low income, high living costs, and lack of recognition at the policy level is already resulting in worrying emigration rates among nurses. Estimates quoted by Mustapha Jaâ, SII President, show that around 1,000 nurses leave Morocco each year to find employment abroad. This trend has already translated into a shortage of nursing personnel, worsened by unrestrained recruitment drives conducted by countries of the Global North.
Among health workers in Morocco, Canada is one of the preferred destinations, and some Canadian provinces, including Québec, rely on recruiting from French-speaking African countries to fill their health workforce shortage. Such an approach continues despite former Canadian officials recognizing that such a practice is having a devastating impact on Morocco’s own health system. In fact, reports from the end of 2023 indicated that Canada will increase its immigration thresholds for 2024 and 2025 to 50,000 people — leaving even more room for nurses from Morocco to leave unless conditions at home improve.
People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and to subscribe to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.
