Preparatory tripartite meeting to set threshold for National Minimum Guaranteed Wage (SNMG)

Representatives of the Government, the UGTA and the Management are expected to hold a preparatory meeting in the next few days in Algiers to set a new threshold for the National Minimum Guaranteed Wage – SNMG – which will be high on the agenda of the next tripartite encounter whose date is still held in abeyance.

• The move comes in the framework of the guidelines issued by the President of the Republic Abdellaziz Bouteflika on February 24th in Arzew, in western Algeria, pertaining to a hike in the SNMG.
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• According to the Finance Minister, Karim Djoudi, the working groups set up by his ministerial department to work out the topical files to be addressed by the upcoming tripartite meeting, have already wrapped up their proceedings.
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• Karim Djoudi said that before defining a SNMG threshold, one should make a deep perusal of the impact of the salaries’ hike on the national enterprises and on the state budget.
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• This assesment task has been carried out efficiently by this ministerial department, he stressed.
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• The Management has meanwhile brought into focus the lingering problem of productivity and taxation before taking any decision on the matter.
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• The General workers’ trade union –UGTA- for its part called for a revision of the SNMG and for an overhaul of the code of the public service.
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• According to sources close to the UGTA, the latter advocates a significant rise in the National Minimum Guaranteed Wage reaching at least 20.000 dinars in order to boost the flagging workers’ purchasing power and to safeguard employment.
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