Some 30,000 Moroccan clothing textile workers lost their jobs last year as 100 cash-strapped companies shut down, L'Economiste newspaper reported.
Mohamed Lahlou, president of the Moroccan Association of Clothing Textile Industry (AMITH), told the paper that urgent measures were needed to bolster the sector.
"We have come to an extremely dangerous point and we need urgent and efficient measures for the future," he said, adding that 80 percent of clothing textile companies "will collapse because they can't hold up anymore."
Lahlou said the government had not honored a promise to exempt employers from 50 percent of employee benefit payouts.
He said the labor ministry had announced the planned exemption last August as a measure to compensate for a hike in the country's minimum wage.
Lahlou said the weakening of the euro against the dollar had hurt Moroccan exporters. The association head also warned unions contemplating strike action to "get a grip," and that a two-week work stoppage could "be fatal for a company." — (AFP, Rabat)
© Agence France Presse 2001
© 2001 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
