Younes Sekkouri: “We have succeeded in implementing a government strategy grounded in values”

In recent years, social dialogue has taken on new momentum. What have been the main achievements?
Social dialogue is a structuring component of the social state; it is not a merely procedural exercise.

The government has positioned it as a structuring instrument for economic regulation and national cohesion, in order to give concrete form to the Royal vision of the social state, as advocated by His Majesty the King, may God assist him. This vision is articulated, inter alia, around social justice, inclusion, and equality of opportunity.

The gains achieved to date are tangible. First, there has been the institutionalisation of a regular calendar, with formalised cycles and monitoring mechanisms. Next, the conclusion of structuring social agreements, notably the successive increases in the SMIG and SMAG, which have contributed to the gradual improvement of purchasing power.

These agreements have also enabled across-the-board wage increases in the public sector starting in 2024, in addition to sectoral agreements that were made possible thanks to the overarching framework the government succeeded in establishing, particularly with trade union actors.

Strengthening collective bargaining—through substantial work on collective agreements, whose number has nearly doubled during this government term—is another achievement worth highlighting.

Several sectors are now covered, notably those experiencing double-digit growth, such as bottled water. Our objective has always been to ensure that employees benefit from the dividends of growth through a strong institutional mechanism: the collective agreement.

Progress has also been made on major reform areas, including the regulation of the right to strike, which had been awaited for nearly 62 years and which now makes it possible to establish a genuine balance between stakeholders, while giving priority to the protection of workers, both women and men.

The organic law that sets out the procedures and conditions for exercising the right to strike protects strikers from abuses by certain employers and guarantees the principle of negotiation. It also establishes a minimum service requirement to protect society.

Social dialogue has once again become a lever for anticipation. It is no longer about managing tensions, but about organising transformation.

What is the relationship with social partners today?
Negotiations with social partners are never easy. The weight of accumulated legacies, the build-up of unresolved issues over time, and trust biases generally lead actors to mistrust one another, which does not facilitate progress.

That is why, from the outset, we opted for a method that may be appreciated or criticised depending on circumstances, but which has the merit of being clear and providing visibility so that stakeholders can organise themselves accordingly.

This method is based on replacing bargaining-driven negotiation with the definition of, and mobilisation around, shared priorities. The advantage of priorities is that they can be framed over the short, medium, and long term, whereas bargaining is strictly based on immediate windows of opportunity.

This approach was not simple for any of us—government, trade unions, or employer representatives—because it implies an agenda of deliverables across several dimensions: material aspects such as wage increases; reform-related aspects such as laws; freedoms and trade union practices; and corporate competitiveness.

Bringing these dimensions together has always been a major challenge, particularly in an overall context that has not always been favourable.

But what has been the outcome?
First, the outcome of this process is that social dialogue never came to a halt. Agreements were honoured, with the mobilisation of unprecedented resources. We surpassed the threshold of 47 billion dirhams.

Historic sectoral agreements were concluded, and the majority of them have either been implemented or are currently being implemented.

We are therefore able to state that this social dialogue has been a major success, that trust between stakeholders consistently prevailed over disagreements, and that good faith and the will to reform the country while serving working women and men have been seriously, honestly, and transparently strengthened, without ulterior motives.

As we reach the end of the government term, institutional relations have been reinforced, mutual respect has been consolidated, and, above all, there are tangible achievements across several sectors, both public and private.

That said, there is still work to be done, and the next round should make it possible to take stock and provide appropriate responses.

How was the effort organised among actors—particularly within government—to achieve these results?
I believe we succeeded in deploying a government strategy grounded in values.

In other words, in our meetings—whether at the level of the Head of Government, with the Ministry of the Budget, the Ministry of Employment, or even with sectoral ministries when negotiations concerned specific areas such as education, health, or higher education—the starting point was always to acknowledge the gaps or “injustices” to which target populations, such as healthcare or education personnel, were exposed or could potentially be exposed.

By acknowledging the difficulties, we were able to develop solutions commensurate with expectations. It should be noted that social partners were quick to respond positively to this values-based approach, which helped resolve or avoid many social conflicts.

Employment is another major area under your department. Where do things stand today, and what are the prospects?
The issue of employment is complex for any government. Over recent years, we have gone through several phases.

Following the Covid‑19 crisis, successive years of drought, and the Russo-Ukrainian crisis, the labour market was deeply affected by factors that exacerbated its longstanding structural problems.

Concretely, during the first three years of our term, we faced a negative trend marked by the loss of at least 100,000 jobs per year in the agricultural sector, coupled with the inability of other sectors—notably commerce and construction—to absorb this deficit.

Traditionally, these sectors had been reliable employment reservoirs for populations that were not necessarily trained or prepared to enter sectors requiring more advanced qualifications, such as industry.

In response, we initially had to design economic inclusion programmes, such as Awrach, which enabled around 250,000 people to be placed over two years in jobs that were admittedly temporary—lasting four to six months—but highly anticipated in areas where economic activity had virtually ground to a halt, particularly in the aftermath of the Covid‑19 crisis.

According to all partners, this programme was a major success, as it allowed tens of thousands of people to earn a decent wage, since we imposed the SMIG regardless of the job or geographical location.

In addition, we achieved a commendable level of feminisation, exceeding 30%. To reach this level, we had to design tailored programmes, such as the digitisation of local authority archives, a niche in which many women were employed.

This was a temporary, non-structuring measure…
What followed was structuring in nature. The government took on the employment issue by mobilising all stakeholders.

Thanks to the contributions of social dialogue in the private sector, we achieved unprecedented progress in job formalisation. In this respect, CNSS figures for 2024 and 2025 were particularly revealing.

We recorded an annual peak of 350,000 jobs created, with 70,000 destroyed, resulting in a net gain of 280,000 jobs, according to the HCP.

I am convinced that the signal we sent played a decisive role in achieving these figures.

However, two major unresolved issues remained: the intermediation function, which fell short of expectations, with only around 140,000 people effectively placed through Anapec; and the issue of NEETs, who represent a stock of more than 900,000 individuals among the 1.5 million unemployed, for whom no nationwide solution had previously been envisaged.

Specifically regarding Anapec and NEETs, what has been done?
Let us start with NEETs: a population of more than 900,000 unemployed individuals according to HCP figures, compounded by an annual school dropout rate of around 280,000.

This is therefore a serious issue for which the State had not deployed large-scale measures under previous governments. We designed and operationally launched a large-scale programme, Tadaroj, which aims to train and place 100,000 people in companies and cooperatives, depending on the case.

Considerable progress has been made on this programme. More than 200 qualifying occupations have been identified for education levels below the baccalaureate, such as specialisation (end of primary school), qualification (end of lower secondary), or even technician level (baccalaureate level).

We launched this programme across at least seven sectors and mobilised significant resources, amounting to approximately one billion dirhams.

And what about Anapec?
Substantial work has been undertaken to transform the Agency, with the objective of enabling it to capture more than 300,000 opportunities instead of the current 140,000.

I would point out that in 2025, in addition to the 140,000 placements, we received more than 100,000 job offers that we were unable to fill, mainly due to skills mismatches.

This figure is unprecedented—a phenomenon the Agency has faced for the first time in its history.

This is why we launched a new line of programmes, including Idmaj for non-graduates, which has met with real success. As a result, Anapec has begun placing non-graduates for the first time since its creation in the early 2000s.

We have also initiated, with Comader and professionals in the agricultural sector, a seasonal placement scheme.

This phenomenon is becoming increasingly significant in agriculture and requires appropriate sourcing and intermediation.

Finally, we have launched major digitalisation projects to integrate artificial intelligence, in a service-oriented manner, into our operational framework.

I believe that Anapec will be able to reach a new milestone in 2026, both in quantitative and qualitative terms.