Samedi 12 octobre 2013
to form
independent unions and to organize and participate in peaceful protests
and worker strikes. Authorities have blocked demonstrations,
arbitrarily arrested trade unionists, and prosecuted some of them on
criminal charges which appear to have little basis in fact or are based
on the peaceful exercise of their union activities.
(Tunis)
- Algerian authorities have increasingly clamped down on efforts to
form independent unions and to organize and participate in peaceful
protests and worker strikes. Authorities have blocked demonstrations,
arbitrarily arrested trade unionists, and prosecuted some of them on
criminal charges which appear to have little basis in fact or are based
on the peaceful exercise of their union activities. Most recently, on
September 29, 2013, the police violently dispersed a peaceful protest
organized by the Contractual Workers Union in front of the government
compound in Algiers and arrested 20 people, then released them later in
the day.
"
Algeria claims
to be on a path to political reform, but then it turns around and
menaces independent unions that seek social justice and better job
conditions," said
Joe Stork,
acting Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"Workers should not have to risk being fired or thrown in prison for
participating in peaceful union activities." The result of the
crackdown has been a climate of intimidation and fear that inhibits the
development of independent trade unions alongside the existing
state-supported unions, Human Rights Watch said. Human Rights Watch
interviewed 20 union activists about the tactics the authorities use to
curtail union activities during strikes, peaceful protests or indoor
gatherings. Authorities have dismissed government workers after peaceful
strikes and imprisoned union leaders on politically motivated charges.
Algerian authorities should stop putting obstacles in the way of
independent unions, Human Rights Watch said. On April 25, Human
Rights Watch sent a letter to the Algerian ministers of justice and
interior requesting information about specific incidents and cases in
which it appeared that authorities had violated the right of trade
unionists and workers to engage in peaceful union activities.
More than
five months later, the ministers have not replied. Algerian
authorities engage in administrative maneuvers designed to withhold
legal status from independent unions. The law on legalizing new unions
requires these groups only to notify the authorities that they exist,
not to get permission to form. But authorities sometimes refuse to issue
a receipt proving they have been notified. The Union of Higher
Education Teachers in Solidarity (Syndicat des Enseignants du Supérieur
Solidaires), for example, filed its papers on January 19, 2012. But it
received no receipt at the time and has yet to receive an answer from
the government, which means it cannot legally operate. The National
Autonomous Union of Postal Workers (Syndicat National Autonome des
Postiers - SNAP) notified the authorities three times - on July 2, 2012,
on September 13, 2012, and on March 3, 2013 - but the authorities never
issued a receipt. The union still lacks legal status. The rights to
freedom of association, collective bargaining, and to strike are
enshrined in International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions, to
which Algeria is a party.
Algeria also has obligations under the African
Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights and the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which guarantee the right to freedom
of association and assembly, and under the International Covenant on
Economic Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which protects specific
rights related to freedom of association and trade union membership.
Article 2 of ILO Convention 87 on the right to freedom of association
and protection of the right to organize, stipulates that workers and
employers, without distinction, shall have the right to establish and,
subject only to the rules of the organization concerned, to join
organizations of their own choosing without previous authorization.
"Algeria's largest workers' union, the General Union of Algerian
Workers, played a proud role in Algeria's independence a half-century
ago," Stork said. "It is long past the time for Algeria to allow other
unions to flourish too."
Background Since its
independence from France in 1962 until the 1990s, Algeria had only one
workers' union, the General Union of Algerian Workers (Union Générale
des travailleurs algériens, UGTA), which many historians describe as
playing a crucial role during Algeria's war of independence, from 1954
to 1962. Following widespread riots and protests in October 1988 that
shook the government, Algeria adopted a new constitution, paving the way
for legislation that ended the ruling National Liberation Front's
monopoly over political life, media, and organized labor, and allowing
for greater freedom of expression, assembly, and association. On June
2, 1990, Algeria adopted Law 90-14, allowing for the establishment of
independent unions. Several autonomous unions were created in the public
sector, such as the Autonomous National Union of Public Administration
Personnel (Syndicat National Autonome des personnels de l'administration
publique - SNAPAP), and the National Autonomous Union of Education and
Training Workers (Syndicat autonome des travailleurs de l'éducation et
de la formation - SATEF). Law 90-14 requires new unions to register
by sending the authorities a declaration announcing their establishment.
The declaration must contain the list of the founding members and the
administrative committee members of the union as well as their
signatures, their personal status, their profession, and home address;
and two certified copies of the bylaws of the union and the minutes of
its founding general assembly. The law states that the governor or the
labor minister must deliver a receipt (récépissé) acknowledging the
constitution of the union within 30 days. Restrictions on
Establishing Unions In practice, authorities have curtailed the right
to form an independent union in various ways.
Refusal to deliver the receipt for the registration of the unions
Authorities
often refused to deliver the receipt, thus depriving the union of legal
recognition and the ability to operate legally. In addition to the
unions that have tried to register recently, with no response, the
National Union of Vocational Training Workers submitted its founding
papers in 2002 and heard nothing for years. It got its receipt only in
2011, after the ILO's Committee on Freedom of Association made inquiries
to the Algerian authorities about it.
Obstacles to forming federations and confederations
Article
2 of Law no. 90-14, says that workers and employers from the same
professions, branches or sectors of activity have the right to form
unions. Authorities have interpreted that provision as prohibiting the
formation of confederations or federations that unite workers from
different sectors. Authorities used this argument to reject the
request by the National Autonomous Union of Public Administration Staff
(Syndicat National Autonome des personnels de l'administration publique -
SNAPAP) in 2001 to form the National Autonomous Union of Algerian
Workers (Syndicat national autonome des travailleurs algeriens). In
an opinion dated October 17, 2001, the ILO stated that Algerian
legislation should not be interpreted to prevent unions from forming
federations and confederations, and called on Algerian authorities to
end restrictions and obstacles to their formation.
Other obstacles
Authorities
also sometimes contend that the union's bylaws don't conform with the
law. The Higher Education Teachers' Union (SESS) said that the
government replied to its January 2012 submission that "an examination
of the trade union's bylaws shows that they are inconsistent with the
provisions of Act No.
90-14 of 2 June 1990" without providing further
details. Kaddour Chouicha, the union's national coordinator, said
that during meetings with the Labor Ministry, the ministry
representatives asked the union representatives to change the bylaws.
They did and resubmitted their papers, to no avail.
The National
Autonomous Union of Workers of the SONELGAZ (Société Nationale de
l'Electricité et du Gaz/National Society for Electricity and Gas), which
submitted its founding papers on June 14, 2012, received the same
reply, without elaboration. The two organizations submitted
complaints to the Freedom of Associations Committee of the ILO. The
committee concluded that, "Generally speaking, recalling that the
applications for registration were filed more than one year ago in one
case, the committee can only express its concerns as regards what
clearly constitutes lengthy delays to register trade unions and a
violation of the right of workers to establish organizations of their
own choosing.
" The committee recommended that Algerian authorities
expedite registration of these unions, but the unions have still not
received the receipts from the government, which keeps asking them to
change their bylaws.
Arbitrary Interference with Union Activities On
February 20, 2013, the police arrested and expelled 10 non-Algerian
members of associations of unemployed workers in other Maghreb countries
who had traveled to Algiers to attend the first Maghreb Forum for the
Fight Against Unemployment and Temporary Work (Forum maghrébin pour la
lutte contre le chômage et le travail précaire) that was to take place
on February 20 and 21 at the labor union center in the Bab Ezzouar
neighborhood of Algiers.
They were held at the Bab Ezzouar police
station, then taken to the airport, where the five Tunisians and three
Mauritanians among them were expelled on the same day and the two
Moroccans on the following day. Rachid Malaoui, the president of the
public administration union, told Human Rights Watch that very early on
February 20, the police surrounded the labor union center and blocked
access to the meeting room. The police arrested Mourad Tchiko of the
public administration union and Abdelkader Kherba of the National
Committee for the Defense of Rights of Unemployed (Comité National de
Défense des droits des Chômeurs - CNDDC), which is affiliated with the
union, held them until that evening, then released them without charge.
Authorities had already summarily shut down an earlier public
administration union headquarters in 2009. The union had rented the
building in Bachdjarrah, a suburb of Algiers, from a private citizen and
made it regularly available to organizations for events, turning it
into a locus of civil society activities in greater Algiers. The
order to close the building down immediately came just before the union
was to hold the North African Unions Forum (Forum Syndical Maghrebin)
there, on May 14 and 15, 2009. The written order signed by the security
chief (préfet) of the wilaya of Algiers listed the reasons for the
closure as: holding gatherings and public meetings without first
obtaining permission to do so; inviting foreigners to participate in
gatherings without informing or seeking the necessary authorization from
the relevant agencies; transforming the premises into a meeting place
for young men and women coming from different regions of the country;
and disturbances of the public order caused by persons on the premises.
Harassment and Intimidation of Union Leaders Members of unions that
consider themselves autonomous from the General Union of Algerian
Workers (Union générale des travailleurs algériens - UGTA) told Human
Rights Watch that the authorities have subjected them to judicial
harassment and arbitrary arrests in reprisal for their peaceful union
activities and demonstrations for labor rights.
The ILO's Committee
on Freedom of Association, which examines complaints about violations of
freedom of association, has affirmed in its case law that the right to
strike "is a right that workers and their organizations (trade unions,
federations, and confederations) are entitled to enjoy," that any
restrictions on this right "should not be excessive," and that the
"legitimate exercise of the right to strike should not entail
prejudicial penalties of any sort, which would imply acts of anti-union
discrimination.
" Several union activists told Human Rights Watch that
they faced retaliation for organizing or participating in strikes. They
said they complied with laws outlining the steps that they must take
before calling a strike. These include exhausting mechanisms for
mediation and conciliation under Article 24 of the labor union law,
notifying the employer eight days in advance and ensuring a minimum
level of service during the strike. Article 33 of the law prohibits
sanctions against workers for participating in a legal strike.
Tchiko, of the SNAPAP, described intimidation and judicial harassment
against him, beginning in 2004. Tchiko, who lives in Algiers, belongs to
the union's national bureau and is a former vice president of the
National Union of Civil Protection Personnel (Union nationale des agents
de la protection civile).
On December 18, 2004, Tchiko organized and
participated in a sit-in in front of the National Direction of Civil
Protection in Algiers to demand an investigation of corruption in this
administration and improvements in working conditions. Civil Protection
suspended him from his job the same day. On February 12, 2005, a
disciplinary commission ordered his reassignment to a Civil Protection
job in another town outside of Algiers governorate because of his
participation in the sit-in. In April 2005, Tchiko said, the court of
Bir Mourad Rais in Algiers charged him with "hampering the services of a
public administration" and organizing an "unauthorized gathering."
Tchiko has been suspended from his job without pay, pending a verdict in
the case. He said that authorities have not let him see his own
judicial file. After eight years, the Court of Bir Mourad Rais decided
on October 10, 2012 to acquit him from all charges. Tchiko has attempted
since that date to reintegrate his previous work and sent a
notification to his former administration informing them about the
judicial decision. However, he is still suspended from his job.
Mourad Ghedia, president of the National Federation of Justice Sector
Workers (Federation nationale des travailleurs du secteur de la justice,
affiliated with SNAPAP), said that his federation decided to organize a
strike in April 2012 to demand better working conditions for law
clerks. But the administration imposed restrictions on the union
leaders, and harassed and intimidated them. Ghedia said the federation
had complied with the legislation on strikes and sent a strike notice to
the authorities on March 31, 2012, for a strike set to begin on April
10. Ghedia said that the administration sanctioned 17 of the striking
court clerks for "dereliction of duties" and "lack of diligence in
work" and reassigned them to other courts far from their homes.
Immediately after the strike, authorities dismissed 57 law clerks,
including six from the executive bureau of the federation, bypassing the
usual mechanisms for initiating a disciplinary dismissal, Ghedia said.
He said they cannot appeal their dismissal since they lack any formal
notification and cannot return to work since the court administration
physically bars them. Saad Bourekba, a member of the National
Federation of Justice Sector Workers, was one of the leaders of the
April 2012 strike in Sétif. He worked as an information technician in
the first instance court of that city. On July 1, 2012, Bourekba
received a summons from the investigating judge of the Setif court,
informing him that he was accused of disrupting the internet network of
the court where he works.
The judge also informed Bourekba that he was
placing him under judicial supervision and that he had to sign in at a
police station three times a week. On October 16, the judge told
Bourekba he was charged under Penal Code article 394bis with
fraudulently accessing an automated data processing system. Bourekba
denied the charge and said that the real motive was to punish him for
was his union activities. Since July 1, 2012, Bourekba has been
suspended from his job without pay. He was sentenced on June 17 to a
year in prison, of which 10 months were suspended. Yassine Zaid, a
human rights and union activist, has faced intimidation and harassment
since he became involved in the activities of independent unions,
including the public administration union. Zaid said that on October 2,
2012, he was on a bus to Ouargla to meet with oil company workers. At a
checkpoint 20 kilometers away, the police stopped the bus and checked
the passengers' papers. Zaid said they took him off the bus and to a
police station, where they slapped him in the face several times and
then detained him for a week. On October 8, they took him before
Ouargla's Court of First Instance on charges of assaulting and insulting
a police officer under articles 144 and 148 of the Penal Code. The
court sentenced him to six months in prison, suspended. He appealed the
decision on October 16 and is still awaiting the appeals trial. Amine
Sidhoum, Zaid's lawyer, said that a witness to Zaid's questioning by
police told Sidhoum that three policemen questioned Zaïd for about two
hours, striking him on the face and neck, while he was handcuffed. Zaid
said he filed a complaint after his release before the public prosecutor
of the First Instance Tribunal of Ouargla for mistreatment, but the
prosecution office did not initiate any case against the police
officers. In one of the most recent examples of judicial harassment
against union leaders, Abdelkader Kherba, a member of the National
Committee to Defend the Rights of the Unemployed (Comité national pour
la défense des droits des chômeurs - CNDDC) was sentenced on May 6, 2013
to two months in prison, and fined 20,000 dinars (approximately
US$250). The Appeal Court of the city of Médéa, about 80 kilometers
southwest of Algiers, convicted Kherba under Law 12-06 relating to
Associations, which came into force in January 2012. Article 46 subjects
active members of unregistered associations to prison terms ranging
from three to six months. Kherba was earlier prosecuted and sentenced to
one year in prison, suspended, on charges of "direct incitement to an
unarmed gathering" and "interfering with the work of an institution"
because he was filming the sit-in of court clerks, who had been on
strike for 10 days to demand better working conditions for court
personnel.
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