Women's Employment - United Nations Research Institute for Social ...

Gender and employment in Moroccan textile industries
rather than being left to their own devices on the streets.
• Through the employment of members of the family, income
is earned within a context of solidarity and mutual aid.
• Piece work involves a continual turnover in the carpet sector.
The maalmas are constantly renewed and, in their turn, they
renew the weavers they take on. The weavers generally work
on an irregular basis, i.e. when they are called upon and when
they go to seek “a task” at the factory. The piece work system
and the flexibility of hours enable the women to manage their
time: they can stop their work if they need to look after their
home or their children.
Men workers also do piece work as cutters and finishers. They
pointed to some of the same advantages as the women workers, one
of the most important being the mutual aid of the family.
The cutters prefer piece work because they can bring in members of
their family to help them. Some of them can produce up to 4,000
square metres a week, earning Dh 3.5 a square metre. There are
several of them at work. One employee takes the order for piece work
and recruits others to help him. Usually they are members of his
family. (Head of a carpet factory)
Piece work enables the factory heads to economize on an
organization of production based on the training of weavers. It
integrates the traditional method of weaving into the factory. The
weaver thus has her weaving work to do in the factory rather than at
home. She does not own what she produces, as in the traditional
system, but receives a wage based on production.
In spite of its perceived advantages, the flexibility of employment
in the carpet sector has a number of negative implications.
Employment is unstable and uncertain, depending on the orders and
the goodwill of the employer. There is little continuity for the young
girls and they do not accumulate experience. Moreover, the wages
are lowest and the wage increases are smallest in the carpet sector.
According to the findings of the survey, the average wage in the carpet
sector is Dh 623, compared to Dh 784 and Dh 815 in the knitwear and
garment sectors respectively. Wage increases reported by workers in
the carpet sector were derisory, varying between 50 centimes and Dh
10 for a square metre of carpet production.
The best work is not what I am doing at the moment, but rather
dress-making in a garment factory. If only I knew how to sew! Wages
are better there than in carpet-making… If I had a good offer of
marriage I would leave the carpet sector. I would leave this work if I
could find a better one. For me, a good salary is 1,000 dirham a
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