Algeria eyes press pay hike

Officials and media workers are developing an agreement to protect Algerian journalists' socio-economic rights.

By Lyes Aflou for Magharebia in Algiers – 04/01/11

Algerian journalists have advocated for a law to regulate their profession for years. With recent consultations under way between Communications Minister Nacer Mehal, and the National Federation of Algerian Journalists (FNJA), some see a glimmer of hope.

Since the deregulation of the press sector in 1991, plans to adopt a law on journalists, including the 2007 draft bill, have come to nothing due to a lack of consensus. This time, however, the ministry has focused the debate on social and pay issues to improve employment conditions for media workers.

"At our regular meetings with the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) to push forward the collective agreement, I have been stressing the need not only to provide a proper pay structure for journalists, but also to establish a proper career structure for them," Mehal said in the Senate on December 19th.

According to the minister, "a journalist needs to know at what point on the pay scale they will start their professional life, and where they should expect to be on that scale when they retire".

The plan, which is currently being developed, stipulates that journalists should not be paid less than 150% of the national guaranteed minimum wage (SNMG), which currently stands at 15,000 dinars per month (150 euros). "My mission is to ensure good employment conditions for journalists. Journalists work for our nation; they should not be poor," Mehal added.

He also said that a consensus between the sides involved in the negotiations might not be too far away and the implementation of the collective agreement would take place "in the near future".

"The collective agreement could be finalized by the end of January," Telli Achour, who runs the industrial conflict department at the UGTA, said, adding that the last meeting between the union and the communications ministry took place on December 13th.

Once signed by the various parties, the introduction of the agreement will result in "a rise in basic salaries within press organizations which come under the umbrella of the public sector. Due to agreements which have already been signed in other sectors, this should be between 20 and 25%."

"Press freedom cannot become a reality unless the press is responsible, professional, and prepared to respect universally accepted moral and ethical codes. And that will not happen unless journalists are given suitable employment conditions to enable them to progress to a higher level," Haddadi Smail, who lectures at the University of Algiers' Institute of Political and Information Science, said.

According to Smail, "the introduction of a special framework – which this collective agreement could well turn out to be – setting out the rights and responsibilities of journalists, and indeed of all those who work in organizations providing information, whether in audio-visual media or the press, is very necessary."

Journalists are anxious to see whether the agreement will be adopted.

"It's high time for a mechanism such as the agreement to see the light of day, in an attempt to put an end to the precarious working conditions of those in professional journalism," Hocine L. said, adding that the agreement "could put an end to the arbitrary treatment of a number of underpaid journalists working for some privately-owned publications".

Farida B., who works for an Arabic language newspaper, concurred that introduction of this agreement "will put an end to the arbitrary way in which companies act, such as the failure to make social security declarations, or worse, in some cases, which is tending to become the norm for newly qualified journalists and new publications."

"The collective agreement, if it is introduced, will have positive consequences for promoting press freedom, with journalists being set free from conditions which shackle them to their employers," Rachid H, a journalist working in the public sector, said.

Source: Magharebia.com.
Link: http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2011/01/04/feature-02.