Algeria switches weekend, again

Algeria is changing its weekend, a transition that has caused considerable confusion and given public sector workers a three-day break.

• The country has had a Thursday-Friday weekend since 1976, but is now aligning itself with other states in the region that have a Friday-Saturday weekend.
• Business people working internationally have welcomed the change.
• But there are also concerns that with Thursday no longer a day off, working hours and some trade will be lost.
• There is considerable confusion about how the country will adjust to the new weekend, the BBC’s Mohammed Arezki Himeur reports from Algiers.
• Banks, shops, and services such as medical or dental practices have always remained open and widely used on Thursdays, and were already in the habit of closing on Friday and Saturday.
• Now they are worried that – even if they open on Saturday – they will lose up to a day of business as people will work on Thursday, observe the Muslim holy day on Friday, and then stay at home until the new week starts, our correspondent reports.
• He says that to compensate, some are considering opening on Friday morning, before the day’s prayers.
• There are also worries that the change will lead to a rise in absenteeism, as employees take time off to pay bills or complete other chores during the working week, our correspondent adds.
• Public sector workers took advantage of the transition to the new weekend this week by taking three days off.
• Algeria established the Thursday-Friday weekend in 1976 in what was seen as an assertion of Algeria’s post-colonial identity as it tried to distinguish itself from the West.
• Business people who deal with international markets or companies have long complained that the country has lost hundreds of millions of dollars each year because of the practice.
• Often restricted to just three normal working days a week, they had campaigned for the Friday-Saturday weekend that is observed in many other Arab countries.