Here is a judgment that will surely displease employers who do not pay their employees. The social court of first instance of Casablanca has just rendered a decision in favor of an employee who had not received his wages for almost three months. The court considered that it was a breach of the employment contract, which is equivalent to unfair dismissal. And even if the employee would leave the company on his own for this reason, this may not be considered as a deliberate abandonment of post.
Consequently, the employee is entitled not only to his salary, but also to severance pay, not to mention the payment of the other components of his remuneration. This is the content of case No. 2022/1501/5079 (judgment pronounced on 03/20/2023) heard by the social court of first instance of Casablanca. The plaintiff had joined the company (a general insurance agent) on August 08, 2017. His salary had been set at 7,622 Dirhams (USD 762) per month, but a few years later, the employer no longer paid him his salary at the beginning of the month as it used to do. The wages for the months of September, October, and November 2021 had still not been paid although the employee has continued to perform his duties, so that the employee sent two formal notices to his employer before starting legal proceedings. In his letter, the employee warned his boss of his intention to leave his job and to rely on the courts to enforce his rights, but the management of the company turned a deaf ear, which pushed the employee to execute his threat to take legal action. In a process described as delaying tactics, the employer tried to prove that the employee was not at his post during the period from September to November, corresponding to the unpaid wages. The employer also questioned the reliability of the documents presented to the court on the pretext that there was not even an employment relationship between the two parties, something which the plaintiff invalidated by supporting his response with an employment contract dated February 08, 2017, as well as a salary certificate for the month of October 2021, all of it supported by a certificate of declaration to Social Security covering the period from February 2017 to the end of December 2021. This was sufficient to confirm the existence of a contractual relationship between the two parties, “in accordance with the legislation in force”. For the court, the employer could not prove that it had paid the wages claimed by its employee, and therefore, the employer could not rely on the abandonment of post to challenge the legal action started by the employee.
The court in charge of social disputes stated that “Not paying an employee on a usual date constitutes a unilateral termination of the employment contract”. Such an act has serious consequences insofar as it amounts to unfair dismissal and gives rise to the right to compensation as provided for in the Labor Code.
Hassan EL ARIF
