National office of Meteorology to go on a general strike

The employees of the national office of meteorology are due to goon strike in the 76 centers across the country on the occasion of the world meteorology day slated for March 23.

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• A group of the employees’ representatives have declared to Echourok that the relevant authorities have brushed aside all the promises they have given to the protesters in the wake of their last movement of strike, adding that they will freeze all their services except in case of emergencies.
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• The office’s engineers were outraged by their manager’s attitude who declined meeting them and start negotiations, despite the assurances given by the transportation minister Amara Tou who showed flexibility and readiness to discuss with them.
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• The minister pledged, in the company of the office’s Director General, to be receptive to their requests and vowed to fulfil their demands at earliest but they haven’t receive anything concrete since, they indicated .
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• The employees’ representative has asserted that they were compelled to go on strike because the Director General has informed them that the Prime Minister refused to increase the engineer’s salaries, considering that they were the weak link in the chain of the transportation ministry.
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• He has further indicated that their weak salaries prompted 8 engineers out of 12 to leave the office who followed a two year training designed to supervise the future digital meteorological service.
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• This international metrological center was expected to be inaugurated by the transportation minister in October 2009, but it is currently out of service.
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• During their meeting with Echourok, the employees have called on the president Abdelaziz Bouteflika to dispatch an investigation commission in the wake of the haemorrhage that drained the technical department at the office.