Occupational health and safety: what Law 65-99 requires
If you run a business in Morocco, or if you work in one, health and safety are not a matter of goodwill. The Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) turns them into a series of precise obligations, some of which are triggered by a headcount threshold. Here is what concerns you, in concrete terms, and where the red lines lie.
The essentials in brief
The employer must keep the premises clean, healthy and safe, and maintain that state throughout the duration of the contract [1]. He is prohibited from allowing his employees to use products or machines recognised as dangerous to their health [2]. From 50 employees, two structures become mandatory: an independent occupational medicine service [3] and a health and safety committee [4]. The occupational physician plays a purely preventive role [5]. Failure to comply with the rules of occupational medicine carries a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 dirhams [6].
The basic obligation: healthy and safe workplaces
It all starts with the premises. The employer must ensure that they are kept in a good state of cleanliness and that they present the conditions of hygiene and sanitation necessary for the health of the employees [1]. The text does not stop at general formulas: it enumerates. Fire prevention, lighting, heating, airing, soundproofing, ventilation, drinking water, latrines, the evacuation of waste water, dust and fumes, cloakrooms, washing facilities, sleeping quarters. It is a list, and each line is a requirement.
This obligation does not stop at the head office. On worksites, the employer must guarantee a normal supply of drinking water and provide healthy accommodation there with satisfactory hygiene conditions for the employees [1]. In other words, moving the activity to a temporary site does not suspend the rule.
A word on duration. Sanitation and safety are not a state to be reached on opening day and then forgotten: the state of the premises must be maintained throughout the employment relationship. Maintenance is part of the obligation, not of the décor.
What to take away: if an inspector comes by and finds a ventilation system out of order or non-drinkable water on a worksite, it is not a detail, it is a breach of the law.
Dangerous products, machines and materials
Beyond the walls, there is what is found within them. The employer is prohibited from allowing his employees to use products, substances, devices or machines recognised by the competent authority as liable to harm their health or to compromise their safety [2]. The prohibition is twofold: it also covers the use of potentially dangerous products or machines under conditions contrary to those set by regulation [2].
The nuance matters. A product does not have to be banned outright to expose you: using it outside the regulatory conditions is enough to constitute a fault.
Certain activities fall under a reinforced regime. In mines, quarries and chemical installations, the safety and hygiene conditions must guarantee the employees particular hygiene and safety, in line with the requirements set by regulation [7]. If you operate in these sectors, the common base is not enough; a specific framework is added.
To keep in mind: the question is not only "is this product authorised?" but "are we using it as the regulation requires?".
The occupational medicine service
This is where the headcount threshold comes into play. An independent occupational medicine service must be set up in industrial, commercial and craft businesses, as well as in agricultural and forestry operations, as soon as they employ at least 50 employees [3]. The same obligation applies, whatever the headcount, to employers carrying out work that exposes employees to the risk of occupational diseases [3].
Below 50 employees, you are not exempt: you must set up an independent or shared occupational medicine service, under the conditions set by the governmental authority in charge of labour [8]. In concrete terms, small structures may group together around an inter-company service. The territorial and professional competence of this service must be approved by the prefectural or provincial labour delegate, after the agreement of the physician in charge of labour inspection [8]. And an inter-company service cannot pick and choose its members: it must accept the membership of any establishment within its competence, unless the labour delegate decides otherwise [8].
The idea is simple. No company, large or small, finds itself outside the occupational medicine system.
The occupational physician: a role of prevention, not of treatment
The occupational physician is not there to treat. His role is preventive: he carries out the necessary medical examinations on the employees, in particular the fitness examination on hiring, and he must avoid any deterioration of their health on account of their work [5]. To this end, he monitors the hygiene conditions in the workplace, the risks of contamination and the employees' state of health [5].
This role comes with a right to be consulted. The occupational physician must be consulted on all questions concerning the technical organisation of the medical service, on new production techniques and on new substances and products [9]. Are you introducing a new machine or a new solvent? His opinion is not optional.
This preventive logic runs through the entire architecture. At the national level, a Council of Occupational Medicine and Prevention of Occupational Risks is established within the governmental authority in charge of labour [10]. It makes proposals and gives opinions to promote occupational medicine inspection and the medical services, and concerns itself with occupational hygiene and safety and with the prevention of workplace accidents and occupational diseases [10].
The useful reflex: consult the occupational physician before introducing a technical change, not after the incident.
The health and safety committee
The second structure triggered by the 50-employee threshold: the health and safety committee. It must be set up in industrial, commercial and craft businesses, and in agricultural and forestry operations, that employ at least 50 employees [4].
Its composition is set by law [11]. The chair is the employer or his representative. To this are added the head of the safety service (or, failing that, an engineer or technical manager appointed by the employer), the company's occupational physician, two staff delegates elected by the delegates, and, where applicable, one or two union representatives [11]. The committee may also summon any person in the company with competence in hygiene and safety, such as the head of personnel or the production manager [11].
Its tasks are broad [12]. Detecting occupational risks, ensuring the application of the texts on safety and hygiene, overseeing the proper maintenance and proper use of protective devices, protecting the environment inside and around the company, prompting initiatives on working methods and equipment, proposing the rehabilitation of disabled employees, giving its opinion on the functioning of the occupational medicine service, and developing the sense of prevention within the company [12]. This is not a decorative committee: it is the internal organ of vigilance.
The practical point: at 50 employees, you trigger the medical service and the committee at the same time. Anticipate both together.
Inspection and sanctions
This whole system is monitored. At the national level, the Council of Occupational Medicine works to promote occupational medicine inspection and the medical services [10]. The law provides above all quantified sanctions for breaches of occupational medicine: a fine of 2,000 to 5,000 dirhams applies in particular to the failure to set up a medical service in line with Articles 304 and 305, the employment of physicians who do not meet the required conditions, the obstruction of the occupational physician's tasks, or the failure to carry out the consultation provided for in Article 322 [6].
Note the mechanics of this fine: it does not sanction an accident, it sanctions the absence of the system meant to prevent it. Prevention is the obligation; its absence, the offence.
The right reflex: do not wait for an inspection to check that your medical service and your committee genuinely exist and function.
Sources
[1] Article 281 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [2] Article 287 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [3] Article 304 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [4] Article 336 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [5] Article 318 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [6] Article 335 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [7] Article 294 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [8] Article 305 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [9] Article 322 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [10] Article 332 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [11] Article 337 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99) [12] Article 338 — Labour Code (Law No. 65-99)
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