Algeria's Sonatrach hikes employees' salaries to curb damaging brain drain

The energy and mines Minister Chakib Khelil has announced a hike in the salaries of Sonatrach's employees whose number exceeds 40.000, averaging the total number of the workers of the national education Ministry which counts the country's largest labour force.

The lowest monthly salary received by a Sonatrach worker is set at 50.000 dinars while that of engineers and skilled technicians ranges between 60.000 and 90.000 dinars with bonuses included.

Chakib Khelil indicated that the salary hike is to be implemented shortly and is mainly aimed at checking the growing brain drain affecting the state-owned hydrocarbons company.

Sonatrach is rated as one of the biggest energy groups in the world and the first in Africa .

A host of Algerian engineers and skilled technicians have quit Sonatrach in the past few years for a job in foreign energy firms, operating in Algeria or elsewhere in the world, on account of more enticing monthly salaries of up to 800.000 dinars.

The rise in salaries, decided by the Sonatrach top management, after negotiations with the company’s trade unionists, is essentially designed to stabilize the Sonatrach workforce and boost productivity in the face of a fierce foreign competition, Chakib Khelil explained.