Algerian PM freezes his predecessor’s project on salary hikes for public civil servants

Informed sources told Echorouk that the Head of government Ahmed Ouyahia has ordered the civil service managerial bodies to rescind all the special measures pertaining to the planned salary hikes decided by his predecessor Abdellaziz Belkhadem.

• Ouyahia stressed in his latest instructions that the finance law for the year 2009 does not provide for any rise in the salaries of public civil servants.
• The Algerian Prime Minister said in this connection that Belkhadem’s project providing for additional pay rises for the benefit of civil service employees is now null and void.
• Ouyahia’s baffling move is widely expected to touch off the bitter discontent of about 1.5 million public civil servants who were eagerly awaiting the new salary hikes promised by Abdellaziz Belkhadem during his term in office.
• The autonomous trade unions have already hit out against such a decision stressing that the pledged salary rises for the benefit of public service workers were fully legitimate and rightful on account of the plummeting purchasing power facing the vast majority of the Algerian citizens in addition to current foodstuff price surges at the national level.