Morocco joins the Fairwork network

Fairwork is excited to announce that Rabat Business School, International University of Rabat has joined our global network!

Fairwork is committed to highlighting the best and worst working conditions in the platform economy globally, and the Fairwork Morocco team will be appraising prominent digital labor platforms in Morocco against Fairwork’s five principles of fair work.

The Fairwork Morocco team will be led by Principal Investigators Nacef Mouri and Jibril Abdul Bashiru who, together with their team members Chris Osakwe, Najlae Zhani, Oluwatobi Ogunmokun, Frederick Pobee, and Hayford Amegbe from the International University of Rabat.

The digital economy is transforming the global economy and Morocco is not left behind, as the transformation is transversal and concerns most sectors of the nation’s economy. This has triggered an increase in non-standard forms of employment and precarious platform work arrangements in Morocco over the last couple of years. One of the reasons for this is little legitimacy of digital platforms and unfair resistance from traditional alternatives. Though platform workers are quickly becoming a significant portion of all employment since COVID-19 has deepened the salience of the gig economy, too many of them slip through the cracks in the labour laws and employee rights as it is difficult to see whether certain activities are unpaid, what kind of conditions workers are subject to, and the extent workers’ rights are being eroded by platforms.

By assessing some key platforms in the Moroccan digital economy and rating their performance based on the five principles of Fairwork, the Moroccan team will contribute towards holding the digital platforms accountable for unfair practices, engage stakeholders by empowering consumers to make informed choices about which platform to use, and providing a strong evidentiary basis for activists and policymakers seeking to advocate and regulate practices within the nation’s digital economy.