Paid leave in Morocco: how to calculate days, seniority and worked examples

How many days of paid leave does an employee earn?

Unless the employment contract, a collective agreement, the internal rules or established practice provide something more favourable, the Labour Code grants annual paid leave after six months of continuous service with the same company or employer. The employee earns one and a half working days per month of service, so 12 × 1.5 = 18 working days for a full year. Employees under eighteen earn two days per month of service.

Example: an employee hired on 1 March has ten months of service at the end of December. She has earned 10 × 1.5 = 15 working days, which she can take since she has passed her first six months of continuous service. Some periods, such as the previous year's paid leave, count as actual work; for long absences, have your payroll adviser check the count.

How does seniority increase annual leave?

Leave increases by one and a half days for each full period of five years of service, continuous or not, but the total cannot exceed 30 working days. An employee who reaches five years of service therefore goes from 18 to 19.5 working days, then to 21 days at ten years, 22.5 days at fifteen years, and so on.

Under the basic legal rule alone, the 30-day cap is only reached after 40 years of service: 18 + 8 × 1.5 = 30. The table below gives the annual entitlement by seniority band. The classic mistake is forgetting the increase on the anniversary date, just like the seniority bonus step on the payslip.

How do you count the days: working days, public holidays and Sundays?

Leave is counted in actual working days, which excludes weekly rest days, paid holidays and public holidays not worked in the establishment. In a company where the weekly rest day is Sunday, you count Monday to Saturday. If a public holiday falls during the leave, the leave is extended accordingly: the holiday is not deducted from the balance.

Example: Karim, with 6 years of service, has a balance of 19.5 working days. He is away from Monday 16 to Saturday 28 November 2026 and returns on Monday 30 November. The period covers 13 calendar days, including Sunday 22 November and Wednesday 18 November, Independence Day. The leave deducted is 13 − 1 − 1 = 11 working days, not 13, so his balance goes from 19.5 to 8.5 days. Counting calendar days would have wrongly taken two days off him.

One more point: under the Labour Code, time off work due to illness is not counted as annual paid leave. A properly documented illness during the leave is therefore handled separately; check the details with your payroll adviser.

How should leave be planned and requested?

Leave dates are set by the employer after consulting staff representatives and, where relevant, union representatives; departure dates take account of employees' family situation and seniority. The departure schedule is notified to each employee in advance, posted in the workplace and recorded in a leave register available to employees and the labour inspectorate.

By agreement between employee and employer, leave can be split or carried over across two consecutive years, within the limits set by the Labour Code. On a fixed-term contract (CDD), the employee must have taken all their leave before the contract ends. A few good practices prevent most disputes:

• Publish the departure schedule early, especially for the summer.
• Require a written request stating the dates and the number of working days.
• Have the manager validate the request, never the requester.
• Update the balance as soon as the request is approved and show it on the payslip.

How is leave paid, and what happens to unused days?

During leave, the employee is entitled to an allowance equal to the pay they would have received had they been working, including salary and related benefits in cash or in kind. The Labour Code provides that it is paid no later than the day before the leave starts, and the calculation method is detailed by ministerial order. For a monthly-paid employee this usually means pay is simply maintained; when pay includes variable bonuses, have your accountant validate the method.

Leave cannot be swapped for money while the contract runs: the Labour Code makes void any agreement in which the employee gives up leave in advance, even in exchange for compensation. However, when the contract ends, for whatever reason, before the employee could take the leave earned, they receive a compensatory allowance for the unused days, paid together with their last salary.

Which common leave management mistakes should you avoid?

Most leave disputes come from approximate counting or a lack of written records.

• Counting calendar days instead of working days, which wrongly deducts Sundays and public holidays from the balance.
• Forgetting the 1.5-day increase for each five-year period of service.
• Granting leave on a verbal agreement, with no written request or approval.
• Offering to buy back leave during the contract instead of having it taken.
• Not having a fixed-term employee take their leave before the contract ends.
• Not showing the leave balance on the payslip.

How does SOGESTIO manage paid leave?

The SOGESTIO Human Resources module, included in the Pro and Groupe plans, counts leave and absences in working days, Monday to Saturday, excluding fixed-date public holidays. For religious holidays, whose dates follow the lunar calendar, check the count on the requests concerned. Each employee's balance follows the usual legal rule: 1.5 days per month of service, plus 1.5 days per five-year period of service, capped at 30 days.

Leave requests go through the approval workflow, with delegation while a manager is away, and nobody can approve their own request. The module also tracks employment contracts (CDI, CDD, ANAPEC, internship, temporary work) and alerts you before a contract or trial period ends. Payroll runs in the same tool, in the Pro (449 DH/month excl. VAT) and Groupe (990 DH/month excl. VAT) plans. 14-day free trial, no card required.