Rabat – Royal Air Maroc (RAM) and the case of its trainee pilots continue to make local headlines. Reports on the situation have been sweeping social media, with opinions on the dispute divided.
COVID-19: RAM’s financial dilemma
During a Covid-induced economic crisis Royal Air Maroc, the national carrier suspended work contracts of 105 trainee pilots who were part of a three-year training program, which should have ensured them employment with the national flag carrier after completing it.
In March 2020, Morocco introduced a state of emergency under which authorities imposed a total lockdown and closure of airspace as part of its campaign to combat the spread of the coronavirus.
The situation affected state carrier Royal Air Maroc, which declared huge tremendous financial losses, and in May 2020, Royal Air Maroc’s CEO Abdelhamid Addou said the company was losing MAD 50 million ($5.15 million) per day, making the situation the “worst crisis” in the company’s history.
What was the program?
The training program, where participants spend the first two years in France’s National School of Civil Aviation of Toulouse and the final year in Morocco, was part of the airline’s contract deal with the trainee pilots. The agreement then says that the company will sign a permanent employment contract with the trainee pilots following the three-year training.
Royal Air Maroc partnered with banks to loan the trainees money to pay for the MAD 1 million ($102,116) program (for each trainee). The loan agreement then stipulated trainees to pay back the money over 10 years after signing their official recruitment contract with Royal Air Maroc.
RAM’s suspension and alternative
Due to the COVID-19-induced financial crisis, however, Royal Air Maroc suspended 105 trainee pilots.
The initial contract suspension of the trainee pilots covered a seven months period that was then extended for another year, until April 2022.
But this meant the trainees could not pay their loan installments. Therefore, Royal Air Maroc paid the loans back to banks.
Royal Air Maroc then proposed another recruitment contract with Atlas Multiservice, a company affiliated with the Moroccan airline.
But the pilots rejected the offer under which Royal Air Maroc said Atlas Multiservice would pay the trainee pilots a salary less than what the national carrier had previously promised them.
Amid uproar from the trainee pilots, Royal Air Maroc then filed a lawsuit against three trainee students, urging them to pay their loan debts.
No official words on the case
Royal Air Maroc has not responded to a request for comment from Morocco World News.
Mohammed Sebbari, a member of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) addressed a written question to Minister of Transport and Logistics Mohammed Abdeljalil.
In the written question, the parliamentarian asked the minister to explain the airline’s rationale behind its actions, particularly its decision to offer an alternative recruitment contract through Atlas Multiservice that includes a deduction of 45% from the initially promised wages.
Youssef Yassir, one of the trainee pilots affected by Royal Air Maroc’s suspension, told Morocco World News last week that he was “astonished” by the company’s refusal to provide financial support to them amid the financial crisis.
He claimed that Royal Air Maroc asked the trainee pilots to submit a request asking for the termination of their training contract.
Yassir also said that the company asked the trainees to send recruitment requests to “another company.”
The company Yassir mentioned potentially refers to the Atlas Multiservice company that the Moroccan MP in his question to the Minister of Transport.
Yassir, who is also a member of the coordination of RAM trainee pilots, joined the program in 2017 before his Royal Air Maroc’s contract was suspended in August 2020, while completing his third year of training in Morocco.
The Coordination of RAM Trainee Pilots was set up during the tussle over the work contracts and represents the interests of those whose contracts the airline suspended. Earlier this month the ground said in a press release that the national carrier is “tarnishing its image and reputation.”
Yassir accused Royal Air Maroc of offering a “take it or leave it” deal that does not meet their demands.
“I could not, in any case, break my contract with the company carrying the flag of Morocco, which is my sponsor, which is the guarantor of my training, to go and throw myself into the arms of another company that I do not know,” said Yassir.
The complaints and outcry are not targeting Royal Air Maroc as a company but rather addressing the carrier’s management, he stressed.
“We are 105, we had the same training under the same conditions. We all deserve to be treated the same way,” Yassir argued.
