El Ghazi: “Setting up of independent “hard labor” committee during holy month of Ramadan”

The Algerian Labor Code is one of the ten best laws in the world because of the rights and protection of workers in various fields, the Minister of Labor, Employment and Social Security said on Monday.

Mr. El Ghazi, who met with the sector’s executives in Setif (eastern Algeria), stressed that the proposed amendments to the labor law will be referred to the unions in order to enrich them by providing the workers with  more protection and enshrining the principle of equality of opportunity with greater attention to foreign workers who benefit from the principle of equality along with the Algerian worker in consistence with the International Freedoms Convention established by the International Labor Office in Geneva (Switzerland).
According to the Minister, this law prohibits any form of slavery that we still witness in many countries in the world, and also prevents the exploitation of children and their illegal entry into the workplace.
The new amendments to the labor code will also be extended to harassment in the workplace, with severe penalties being foreseen as a result, he noted.
The minister said that his services favored the setting up of an independent technical committee, the only one with the authority to define and pinpoint hard labor in consultation with the sectors concerned.
Such an overseeing committee, he added,  will be installed during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan.
“Hard professions will be defined in all transparency and without any pressure from the administration and the unions, as the best way to determine the wrapping up of this file, because if it is left open, then everyone will claim that his profession is strenuous, thereby demanding early retirement”, Mr El Ghazi underlined.