Algeria: Eighty thousand applications to take advantage of pre-retirement before January 2017 deadline

The Chairman of the Commission of Health, Social Affairs and Labor, Mr Ali Malakhasso announced in a statement to “Echorouk” that around 80 thousand Algerian workers have filed applications with the aim of securing early retirement before 1st January 2017 deadline set by the government abolishing such an option.

“Out of the eighty thousand application files in question, 30 thousand of them were submitted by the workers of the sector of national education alone”, he affirmed.

Our interlocutor added that government proposed draft law on this thorny issue is being scanned by the relevant commission, while hoping that the ongoing parliamentary debate on the matter would allow for amendments to this draft law in order to make it more palatable and more flexible for those workers eagerly seeking pre-retirement without waiting for the 60-year age limit as decided by the government.

It must be recalled that the Minister of Labour, Employment and Social Security, Mohamed El Ghazi, announced for his part that  a session would held later this week at the National People’s Assembly (NPA) devoted to the new draft law on retirement.

The new draft law on retirement, which is at the level of the Assembly’s commission of Social Affairs “will be the focus of a meeting on Sunday with the said commission to explain the vision of the text with respect to all and sundry,” said Mr. El Ghazi at the 2nd meeting of a seminar organized Saturday in Algiers by the Ministry of Education to enlighten the social partners over the vexed retirement file.

“The sensitization dialogue on this issue is quite necessary because it concerns everyone, unions and workers”, said the minister, recalling that the National Pension Fund (CNR) “is in dire financial difficulties”.

Analysts surmise with regard to this burning issue that the future sustainability of the retirement pension is linked to a new growth model creating value, the segments being under a new employment policy, management of social security and taxation. Regarding employment past and current policy has been to favor the distribution of income (wages without productive counterparties) employment, that is, implicitly helping to trigger off more unemployment. 

In addition, it’s necessary to alter the collective practices and reduce the jerks on employment by increasing the flexibility of income and working hours through ongoing training meant for adaptation to new technologies and organizations as part of the quality improvement that has significantly deteriorated. 

It is desirable to ensure the decentralization of education management in a comprehensive manner in order to ensure the regional competition and its adaptation to the needs of society, with four main poles of excellence and thus avoid the myth of a university by wilaya . The second axis of social cohesion is that of a new management of social security.

The financing of social protection continues to depend mostly on social contributions and absorbs productivity gains at the expense of employment and direct wages. Because we must recognize that with the decline in wage employment due to rising unemployment, this weighs a lot on account of social security and the presence of both transfer payments and their financing, as the deficit is covered by medium-term loans that are to be supported by future generations. 

Moreover, the durability of the system may be threatened in the medium term and requires deep structural reforms. In case of sudden drop in oil prices and if the failure in the development persists, one should think of implementing sustainable and non-cyclical measures. In general, the concept of equity has changed and access to employment should be a priority because the current inadequate social bulwark increases unemployment.