To show dissatisfaction with their pay and job security, council workers throughout Algeria launched a two-day strike.
By Fidet Mansour for Magharebia in Algiers – 01/04/10
Local council workers on Wednesday (March 31st) began a two-day strike over wages, benefits and job security, making them the latest Algerian public-sector employees to walk off the job.
Half a million workers in 1,451 communes went on strike to demand a new allowances scheme and the retention of the established retirement scheme, according to organizers from the National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Personnel (SNAPAP). Last December, the government ended an early-retirement plan that allowed workers to draw a pension after 32 years of service.
"We have not had any positive response from the government during the two days of strikes," union chairman M'Malaoui Rachid told Magharebia on Thursday, adding that the next step is a three-day strike next week that will be extended if necessary.
SNAPAP president Ali Yahia told reporters that rank-and-file support for the strike was very high in most regions, citing a 100% turnout rate in Bejaia and 70-75% compliance in the rest of the country.
However, communes in Algiers and in the south failed to elicit this high level of participation, recording only a 30% participation rate. Yahia told Magharebia on Thursday that he blamed "pressure…by the administration on employees to dissuade them from walking out", by threatening to cut their pay.
The strikers are mainly concerned with pay issues. Akram, a counter clerk, told Magharebia: "These are derisory wages, far removed from the realities of society and the cost of living."
The top salary for a commune manager is no more than 30,000 dinars. Some employees receive less than the national guaranteed minimum age of 9,000 dinars, even though they may have been on the job for more than 20 years.
Job security is also a sensitive issue for a large segment of the communes' workforce.
"Civil servants on contracts make up 20% of the total number," Yahia told Magharebia on April 1st. "The majority of them are young people, employed as part of the social action, pre-employment and other state arrangements to support employment. These people receive pay of 3,000 dinars, and have no rights as workers, since their employment is temporary."
Contract workers may be laid off at any time with no advance warning, Yahia added. Algerians looking to secure legal documentation such as birth and death certificates have been seriously inconvenienced by the walk-out.
One Bab El Oued resident, Amer, who needed a birth certificate from commune authorities had to walk away empty-handed due to the strike.
"I have to submit my job application today," he told Magharebia. "Without a birth certificate, they'll reject it. I think this is irresponsible behavior."
Slimane, a council employee, supported the right of his union to strike.
"We're on starvation wages," he told Magharebia on March 30th. "We work under deplorable conditions. Going on strike is the only way we can get our socio-professional demands heard."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/04/01/feature-02.
By Fidet Mansour for Magharebia in Algiers – 01/04/10
Local council workers on Wednesday (March 31st) began a two-day strike over wages, benefits and job security, making them the latest Algerian public-sector employees to walk off the job.
Half a million workers in 1,451 communes went on strike to demand a new allowances scheme and the retention of the established retirement scheme, according to organizers from the National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Personnel (SNAPAP). Last December, the government ended an early-retirement plan that allowed workers to draw a pension after 32 years of service.
"We have not had any positive response from the government during the two days of strikes," union chairman M'Malaoui Rachid told Magharebia on Thursday, adding that the next step is a three-day strike next week that will be extended if necessary.
SNAPAP president Ali Yahia told reporters that rank-and-file support for the strike was very high in most regions, citing a 100% turnout rate in Bejaia and 70-75% compliance in the rest of the country.
However, communes in Algiers and in the south failed to elicit this high level of participation, recording only a 30% participation rate. Yahia told Magharebia on Thursday that he blamed "pressure…by the administration on employees to dissuade them from walking out", by threatening to cut their pay.
The strikers are mainly concerned with pay issues. Akram, a counter clerk, told Magharebia: "These are derisory wages, far removed from the realities of society and the cost of living."
The top salary for a commune manager is no more than 30,000 dinars. Some employees receive less than the national guaranteed minimum age of 9,000 dinars, even though they may have been on the job for more than 20 years.
Job security is also a sensitive issue for a large segment of the communes' workforce.
"Civil servants on contracts make up 20% of the total number," Yahia told Magharebia on April 1st. "The majority of them are young people, employed as part of the social action, pre-employment and other state arrangements to support employment. These people receive pay of 3,000 dinars, and have no rights as workers, since their employment is temporary."
Contract workers may be laid off at any time with no advance warning, Yahia added. Algerians looking to secure legal documentation such as birth and death certificates have been seriously inconvenienced by the walk-out.
One Bab El Oued resident, Amer, who needed a birth certificate from commune authorities had to walk away empty-handed due to the strike.
"I have to submit my job application today," he told Magharebia. "Without a birth certificate, they'll reject it. I think this is irresponsible behavior."
Slimane, a council employee, supported the right of his union to strike.
"We're on starvation wages," he told Magharebia on March 30th. "We work under deplorable conditions. Going on strike is the only way we can get our socio-professional demands heard."
Source: Magharebia.com
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2010/04/01/feature-02.
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