2015 ITUC Global Rights Index Rating: 5

Autonomous unions still struggling for recognition:

On 16 August the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) issued a press release warning that independent trade unions in Algeria were still facing repression. To be legally recognised as a trade union, a workers' organisation must hold a general assembly and submit its application to the Labour Ministry, which should respond within one month. However according to the League, 13 autonomous unions had applied to the Ministry over the last two years for recognition, and had not received acknowledgement from it. This leaves them in a vulnerable position where they are either ignored or even repressed by the employers.

According to the LADDH, unions facing repression included the SNAPAP (National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Personnel), the SNAP (National Autonomous Union of Postal Workers) and the SNATEG (National Autonomous Union of Sonelgaz Gas and Electricity Workers). The SNAP had been waiting for over two years for official recognition. Despite submitting its application on 2 July 2012, the organisation had not received an answer, neither recognition nor refusal, from the Ministry of Labour. Furthermore, its president, Mourad Nekkach, had been suspended from his post. Without official recognition the SNAP was very limited in what it was able to do to defend its members.

SNATEG was also facing difficulties, despite the fact that its union had received official recognition in December 2013, and had followed all legal procedures. The General Secretary of SNATEG, Bendief Boualem, said that Sonelgaz refused to negotiate with it, the union's president Abdella Boukhalfa, had been dismissed and all their founding members – 37 in total – were facing disciplinary procedures. They had been threatened with anything from pay deductions to dismissal, and more union members were also under threat, having already received verbal harassment.

Four postal workers sacked for going on strike:

Four members of the Algeria Post Workers' Collective (CTAP) in Mostaganem in the west of the country were sacked after taking part in a strike on 10 January 2015. Their union had called the strike after waiting months for their employer to negotiate a list of demands. They were supported by the Autonomous Postal Workers Union (SNAP) which regretted that Algeria Post had opted for repression rather than dialogue, and noted that one of the workers' collective's principal demands was the official recognition of their organisation as a trade union. The collective had submitted its application for recognition in July 2012.

Unemployed workers facing arrest and imprisonment for peaceful protests:

In February 2015 Human Rights Watch reported that Algeria courts had sentenced nine labour rights activists to prison since late January 2015 for engaging in peaceful protests to support unemployed workers. One, Mohammed Rag, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for "unauthorised gathering." On 11 February, the Laghouat Court of First Instance sentenced eight members of the National Committee for the Defence of the Rights of Unemployed Workers (Comité National pour la Défense des Droits de Chômeurs, CNDDC) on the same charge to one-year prison terms, half of it suspended. The authorities had arrested all eight – Khencha Belkacem, Brahimi Belelmi, Mazouzi Benallal, Azzouzi Boubakeur, Korini Belkacem, Bekouider Faouzi, Bensarkha Tahar, and Djaballah Abdelkader – on 28 January when they assembled outside the court to protest against the trial of Mohamed Rag.

The Laghouat police ordered their arrest to prevent "potential trouble to the public order." Following their sentencing, all nine CNDDC activists went on hunger strike and lodged appeals.

In April 2014, the Appeals Court of Ouargla had imposed a one-year suspended sentence on another member of the group Houari Djelouli, and fined him 50,000 dinars (about US$530). He was convicted for distributing CNDDC leaflets calling for a peaceful sit-in protest to demand the right to work that the authorities deemed "likely to undermine national interest."

Noureddine Abdelaziz, the group's president, said that police in Laghouat arrested another CNDDC activist Tarek el Naoui at 6 a.m. on 11 February 2015, when he arrived at the city's train station from Algiers, 400 kilometers north, to attend the trial of the eight activists. He was released without charge six hours later.


The ITUC Global Rights Index Ratings:

1 // Irregular violation of rights
Collective labour rights are generally guaranteed. Workers can freely associate and defend their rights collectively with the government and/or companies and can improve their working conditions through collective bargaining. Violations against workers are not absent but do not occur on a regular basis.

2 // Repeated violation of rights
Countries with a rating of 2 have slightly weaker collective labour rights than those with the rating 1. Certain rights have come under repeated attacks by governments and/or companies and have undermined the struggle for better working conditions.

3 // Regular violation of rights
Governments and/or companies are regularly interfering in collective labour rights or are failing to fully guarantee important aspects of these rights. There are deficiencies in laws and/or certain practices which make frequent violations possible.

4 // Systematic violation of rights
Workers in countries with the rating 4 have reported systematic violations. The government and/or companies are engaged in serious efforts to crush the collective voice of workers putting fundamental rights under threat.

5 // No guarantee of rights
Countries with the rating of 5 are the worst countries in the world to work in. While the legislation may spell out certain rights workers have effectively no access to these rights and are therefore exposed to autocratic regimes and unfair labour practices.

5+ // No guarantee of rights due to the breakdown of the rule of law
Workers in countries with the rating 5+ have equally limited rights as countries with the rating 5. However, in countries with the rating 5+ this is linked to dysfunctional institutions as a result of internal conflict and/or military occupation. In such cases, the country is assigned the rating of 5+ by default.

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