Harassment and Violence at Work: Your Rights in Morocco
If you are subjected to unwanted advances, insults or blows at your workplace, know that the Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) does not leave you alone to face it. The law names these behaviours, classifies them as serious misconduct, and arranges an outcome that can work in your favour. But you still need to know who committed the misconduct, and how to prove it.
The essentials in brief
When the employer gravely insults an employee, exercises violence against them, sexually harasses them or incites them to debauchery, the Labour Code treats these acts as serious misconduct by the employer [1]. The employee who then leaves their job for this reason is not considered to have resigned: their departure is treated as an abusive dismissal [1]. The law also prohibits any discrimination based notably on sex [2]. Violence comes from the other side too: it is among the instances of serious misconduct that can justify the dismissal of the employee [3].
What the law classifies as serious misconduct by the employer
The Labour Code draws up a clear list. The following are serious misconduct committed by the employer, the head of the company or of the establishment against the employee: grave insult, any form of violence or assault directed against the employee, sexual harassment, and incitement to debauchery [1].
Read these terms carefully. They are not decorative.
Sexual harassment is named in plain words as serious misconduct. Violence is named in a broad formula: "any form of violence or assault", which is not limited to blows. Grave insult also counts, and incitement to debauchery closes the list [1].
This wording has a practical reach. Because the law targets "any form" of violence or assault, you do not have to demonstrate a spectacular assault to fall within the framework: repeated behaviours, threats, a degrading verbal assault may find their place there [1]. Nor does the list distinguish according to the rank or function of the perpetrator: it targets the employer, the head of the company or of the establishment [1].
What changes everything is the legal effect attached to these acts. The law does not merely condemn them morally.
Why your departure may count as an abusive dismissal
Here is the central mechanism, and it is worth pausing on.
Normally, the employee who leaves of their own accord is a resignee: they lose the dismissal indemnity and damages. But the Labour Code provides for a decisive exception. The fact that the employee leaves their job because of one of the employer's serious instances of misconduct listed above is treated as an abusive dismissal, provided it is established that the employer actually committed one of these acts [1].
Let us put it plainly. If you leave because your employer sexually harassed you or assaulted you, you are not treated as someone who abandoned their post. You are treated as a person who was abusively dismissed. And an abusive dismissal gives rise to a right to compensation before the courts.
The lock rests on three words: "when it is established" [1]. The protection is not triggered on a mere allegation. The employer's misconduct must be proven. That is the whole issue of evidence, which we return to below.
The useful reflex: do not resign with a curt letter referring to "personal reasons". Expressly link your departure to the misconduct you suffered, and keep a copy of what you send to the employer. This drafting precision is precisely what will later make it possible to tie your departure to the employer's misconduct rather than to an ordinary resignation [1].
Dignity and equality, the foundation of your protection
Harassment and violence are not incidents isolated from the rest of the law. They clash with a principle that the Labour Code lays down more broadly.
The law prohibits any discrimination against employees based notably on sex, but also on race, colour, disability, marital status, religion or political opinion, where it impairs equality of opportunity and treatment in matters of employment [2]. This prohibition covers hiring, the distribution of work, salary, advancement, disciplinary measures and dismissal [2].
The same text affirms the right of women, whether married or not, to enter into an employment contract and to join a trade union [2].
Why recall this here? Because harassment with a sexual connotation or violence aimed at a female employee often forms part of a broader violation of equality. Invoking this foundation, in addition to the classification as serious misconduct, strengthens your case.
The angle is useful beyond the sole case of sexual harassment. If you find that, following the events, your employer altered your remuneration, slowed your advancement, multiplied disciplinary measures or withheld the granting of benefits, these decisions too may be read in light of the prohibition of discrimination [2]. Harassment almost never comes alone; documenting what surrounds it counts as much as documenting the act itself.
When violence comes from the employee
Let us be honest: the law protects the employment relationship in both directions.
The Labour Code counts among the instances of serious misconduct that may bring about the dismissal of the employee: physical assault, grave insult, incitement to debauchery and any form of violence or assault directed against an employee, the employer or its representative, where it harms the functioning of the company [3]. In that case, the labour inspector records the harm to the functioning of the establishment and draws up an official report on it [3].
Note this last point. The Labour Inspectorate is not a mere complaints desk: the law entrusts it with a role of official recording, embodied in an official report [3].
The consequence of serious misconduct is severe. In the event of serious misconduct, the employee may be dismissed without notice, without dismissal indemnity and without payment of damages [4]. This rule cuts both ways: it explains why the employer will seek to classify violent behaviour by the employee as serious misconduct, and why the classification must be handled with rigour.
Before reaching that point, bear in mind that the employer is in principle required to apply disciplinary sanctions gradually; it is only once the sanctions have been exhausted within the year that the employer may dismiss, the dismissal then being considered justified [5]. Serious misconduct, however, short-circuits this gradation.
Building evidence and turning to the right institutions
Everything, as we have seen, rests on what can be "established" [1]. Without evidence, the classification remains theoretical.
Keep the written traces: messages, emails, statements from colleagues, medical certificates describing injuries or a state of distress. Date the facts as precisely as possible.
The Labour Inspectorate is your first front-line recourse. Its recording mission, provided by law for harm to the functioning of the establishment, shows that it can intervene and draw up an official report that will then serve as a reference [3]. Do not hesitate to turn to it early.
The court, next, is where compensation is decided. It is the court that will assess whether the employer's serious misconduct is established and, where appropriate, that will treat your departure as an abusive dismissal giving rise to a right to compensation [1]. Conversely, it is also before the judge that a dismissal pronounced against an employee for serious misconduct will be contested [3][4].
A final word of method. Harassment and violence may also fall under criminal law, distinct from the Labour Code; a lawyer will know how to articulate the two avenues according to your situation.
Sources
[1] Article 40, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [2] Article 9, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [3] Article 39, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [4] Article 61, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [5] Article 38, Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
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