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Dismissal in Morocco: notice, severance pay and legal remedies
The deadline to challenge a dismissal is 90 days. Once it has run out, even a plainly unfair dismissal can no longer be taken to the social court.
Most employees who see a lawyer do so too late. It is not a matter of bad faith: the letter arrives, you absorb the shock, you look for work, and the three months go by. Here are the rules that matter, in the order they will affect you.
Notice
How long it runs depends on your length of service and your grade. For managerial staff: one month under a year of service, two months from one to five years, three months beyond that. For clerical staff and manual workers: eight days, one month, then two months across the same bands.
Notice is either worked or paid. An employer who releases you from working it owes you the matching payment in lieu, and that payment comes on top of the severance payment instead of replacing it.
Severance pay
It is worked out band by band of service, on the average wage over the last 52 weeks, and the bands add up:
- 96 hours of pay for the first five years
- 144 hours for the period from the 6th to the 10th year
- 192 hours for the period from the 11th to the 15th year
- 240 hours beyond the 15th year
For eight years of service, that comes to 96 hours for the first five years, then 144 hours for the three that follow. The commonest mistake is to apply 144 hours to the whole period.
What serious misconduct changes
A dismissal for serious misconduct removes both the notice and the severance pay. That is why the way the misconduct is classified is nearly always the real issue in a case, well ahead of adding up the money. The employer has a procedure to follow: a hearing of the employee within eight days of the events, with a staff representative present, and a signed written record.
The deadlines you cannot miss
- Conciliation attempt before the labour inspector: ask for it straight away
- Social court: 90 days from the day the letter reaches you
- Appeal: 30 days from service of the judgment
- Back pay and overtime: a two-year limitation period
Bringing a claim in the social court is free — there are no court fees to put up in employment matters. That leaves the lawyer's fees, which many Casablanca firms will agree to tie to the outcome on this kind of case.
Before you sign anything
Do not sign a full-and-final settlement receipt before having the figures checked. Signing without reservation makes a challenge markedly harder. If you are being pressed to sign the same day, that is exactly the moment to ask for 48 hours.
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