L'INSTABILITÉ DANS LES MINES DU MAROC ORIENTAL

• Published in: Travail humain (Paris) Vol. 17; no. 3/4; pp. 180 - 186
• Main Author: Trystram, J. P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: Presses Universitaires de France 01-07-1954
• ISSN: 0041-1868; 2104-3663

The labour turnover rate of Moroccan workers is often emphasized. If we compare Moroccan labourers with labourers in mines in other countries, we are, rather, tempted to conclude that labour turnover is connected with skill and wages, and not with the racial origin of the workers. With the installation of psychotechnical laboratories in several mines in East Morocco, a rapid improvement in stability was noted. It cannot be said that an aptitude for stability exists, and account must be taken, in dealing with these questions, of a large number of factors. The aptitudes of selected workers correspond better with the task required of them, and they are therefore less inclined to leave it. Independently of any aptitude, a certain number of candidates fail to adapt themselves to the test situation ; they are, therefore, eliminated, which improves the labour turnover rates, since these are the ones who would not adapt themselves to the work situation. These factors, which are properly speaking psychotechnical, are not sufficient to explain the rapid improvement. Account must be taken of the general reorganisation of employment procedures which usually takes place on the occasion of the installation of a psychotechnical service; it is then often seen that there has been no liaison between the different services, and that the arbitrary engagement and dismissal of workers by department managers encouraged turnover. Still more indirectly , the installation of a psychotechnical service brings with it into a company preoccupations which are not solely technical in nature ; because foremen and supervisors are required to give as objective appraisals as possible of the workers, a new atmosphere and more human contacts are established. None of these factors, however, explains the improvement in its entirety. Account must be taken of a phenomenon common to Morocco as a whole in the present state of affairs. A state of masked crisis leads to the fear of unemployment, and the workers seek rather to retain their jobs in the same company. Finally, the evolution towards higher wages, and the greater number of skilled workers, all tend in the same direction. If, therefore, labour turnover, a complex phenomenon, has shown improvement in Morocco, psychotechnics is not the only cause.