Occupational Accidents and Occupational Diseases in Morocco
If you work in Morocco, the idea that an accident or an illness linked to your job could strike you is not an abstraction: it is the very risk that the Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) seeks first and foremost to prevent. The logic of the Code is clear. Before compensating, you prevent. The employer carries a broad duty of safety, and a medical and oversight framework is there to support it.
The essentials in brief
In Morocco, the Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) places prevention at the heart of protection against occupational accidents and occupational diseases. The employer must take all necessary measures to preserve the safety and health of employees [1], keep premises clean and safe [2][3], protect dangerous workstations [4], and ban products or machines recognised as harmful [5]. An occupational health service monitors your state of health [7][9], first-aiders are trained [6], and a safety and hygiene committee keeps watch in large companies [11][12]. Quantified compensation, however, falls under a separate piece of legislation.
The employer's duty of safety: the foundation
Everything starts here. The Labour Code requires the employer, in general terms, to take all necessary measures to preserve the safety, health and dignity of employees in carrying out the tasks they perform under the employer's direction [1]. The wording is deliberately broad. It is not limited to a list: it covers everything in the organisation of work that may threaten your physical integrity.
This duty is coupled with a duty to inform. At the time of hiring, the employer must provide you in writing with the applicable provisions, in particular the collective agreement where relevant and the internal regulations, as well as any subsequent amendment [1]. Why does this matter for safety? Because an employee informed of the rules of their workshop is an employee who protects themselves better.
Remember the principle: safety is not a favour granted to you, it is an obligation that the law places on your employer.
Premises and equipment that must not put you in danger
The Code then turns to the concrete. The employer must ensure that the workplace is kept in a good state of cleanliness and meets the conditions of hygiene and healthiness necessary for the health of employees: fire prevention, lighting, heating, airing, ventilation, drinking water, drainage of water, management of dust and vapours, cloakrooms [2]. On worksites, the employer must guarantee a normal supply of drinking water and satisfactory hygiene conditions [2].
The premises themselves must be arranged in such a way as to guarantee the safety of employees, including those with disabilities [3]. And machines, transmission equipment, heating and lighting apparatus, tools and machinery must be fitted with protective devices of recognised effectiveness and kept in the best safety conditions, so that their use does not present a danger [3].
The law goes further for high-risk tasks. Employees called upon to work in wells, gas ducts, flues, cesspits, vats or apparatus that may contain harmful gases must be secured by a belt or protected by another safety device, including masks [4].
Finally, the Code lays down a clear prohibition: the employer may not allow employees to use products, substances, apparatus or machines recognised by the competent authority as liable to harm their health or to compromise their safety [5].
In practical terms: if your job exposes you to a dangerous product without protection, that is not an inevitable part of the trade, it is a breach.
When an accident occurs: first aid and medical follow-up
Prevention does not eliminate all risk. The Code anticipates this. In every workshop where dangerous work is carried out, at least two employees must receive training in first-aid techniques and methods for emergencies [6]. These trained first-aiders do not replace nurses, they are in addition to them [6].
Beyond the emergency, it is occupational medicine that takes over. The occupational physician has a preventive role: they carry out the necessary medical examinations, in particular the fitness examination on hiring, and ensure that no impairment of employees' health results from their work, by monitoring hygiene conditions, the risks of contamination and the state of health [7].
This follow-up is framed over time. In companies subject to the obligation to have an occupational health service, you must be examined before hiring or before the end of the probationary period, then at least once every twelve months (every six months for those under 18) [9]. Above all, an examination is mandatory after an absence due to an occupational accident or occupational disease [9]. It is this point that directly concerns your situation: after an occupational accident, your return to work goes through the occupational physician.
If you return after a work-related leave, insist on this examination: it determines your fitness and protects your rights.
The occupational physician, your discreet ally
The occupational physician is not there only to sign certificates. The Code entrusts them with an advisory role to management and department heads, in particular on monitoring general hygiene conditions, protecting employees against accidents and against all the nuisances that threaten their health, adapting the workstation to the employee's state of health, and improving working conditions [8].
This includes eliminating dangerous products and studying work rhythms [8]. In other words, this physician is meant to correct upstream what could injure you.
The legislature has even established, within the government authority in charge of labour, a Council of Occupational Medicine and Prevention of Occupational Risks, tasked with promoting the inspection of occupational medicine and with attending to everything relating to occupational hygiene and safety and the prevention of occupational accidents and occupational diseases [10].
The safety and hygiene committee: collective vigilance
In industrial, commercial and craft enterprises, as well as in agricultural and forestry operations employing at least 50 employees, a safety and hygiene committee must be created [11]. This is not a decorative body.
Its mission is operational: to detect the occupational risks to which employees are exposed, to ensure the application of the texts on safety and hygiene, to oversee the proper maintenance and proper use of protective devices, to encourage initiatives on work methods and the choice of equipment, and to develop a sense of prevention within the company [12]. It also gives its opinion on the functioning of the occupational health service [12].
If your company exceeds this threshold and no committee exists, that is a warning sign.
What the Labour Code penalises, and what it does not quantify
These obligations are not mere wishes. The Labour Code provides for fines, for example from 2,000 to 5,000 dirhams, notably for the absence of an independent medical service where it is required, the employment of physicians who do not meet the conditions, obstruction of the occupational physician's duties, or the absence of the first-aiders and auxiliaries provided for [13]. The penalty gives weight to prevention.
An honest clarification is in order. The Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) builds the prevention, medical surveillance and oversight component. But the quantified compensation for occupational accidents and occupational diseases — that is, the indemnities, annuities and precise rates — traditionally falls under separate, specific legislation. This guide will therefore not give you compensation scales: they do not appear in the Labour Code. On the other hand, having the accident recorded by the occupational physician [9] and documenting the employer's breach of its duty of safety [1] are the first useful reflexes, whatever the compensation channel.
In the event of a dispute over safety, keep a written record: information received at hiring [1], medical reports [9], the existence or otherwise of a safety and hygiene committee [11].
References
[1] Article 24, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [2] Article 281, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [3] Article 282, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [4] Article 284, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [5] Article 287, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [6] Article 317, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [7] Article 318, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [8] Article 321, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [9] Article 327, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [10] Article 332, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [11] Article 336, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [12] Article 338, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [13] Article 335, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
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