Algeria

In May 2021, Algerian security forces cracked down on a sit-in organised by the National Committee for the Defense of the Rights of the Unemployed to demand jobs and employment assistance measures. Police used excessive force against protesting unemployed workers to disperse them, inuring some workers.

Fellah Hamoudi, member of the Executive Bureau of SNAPAP and CGATA and president of the Office of the Algerian League for Human Rights (LADDH), was arrested on 19 February 2022 in the wilaya of Tlemcen. Fellah Hamoudi had been continuously harassed over the past months in connection to his statements on the “Al Magharibia” television channel. The prosecutor found Hamoudi’s comments concerning the number of prisoners of conscience in Algeria offensive to the Ministry of Interior and “false or malicious”. Hamoudi was also accused of running an “unaccredited” association in connection to his position in the LADDH. His home was searched by the police on 12 January 2022, during which time his laptop and personal phone were confiscated. On 20 February 2022, the Tlemcen Court convicted him and sentenced him to a fine of one hundred thousand dinars and imprisonment of three years.

Mourad Ghedia, president of Algerian union SNAPAP/CGATA Justice Sector Workers, was arrested on 5 April 2021 and placed under a detention order in El-Harrach prison. On the date of his arrest, Mr Ghedia went to the Bab Ezzouar police station in Algiers following police summonses. He was immediately arrested and brought before a judge; he had no access to legal representation. The judge placed him under a detention order without providing reasons for his incarceration. He was sentenced by the court to a six-month suspended sentence. Following a large international campaign, he was eventually released after two months and ten days of detention.

Mr Ghedia, a clerk by profession, had previously been suspended from his employment in 2012 for almost three years, along with 57 other people, for taking strike action. Following complaints to the ILO, Mr Ghedia and the suspended members were reinstated, and he resumed his duties as registrar between 2015 and 2018, when he was again dismissed without cause.

In April 2021, the workers of the National Agency for Entrepreneurship Support and Development in Algeria launched a strike by a decision of the National General Assembly of the Trade Union of the Enterprise protesting the refusal of the management to engage in collective bargaining.

In April 2021, the Algerian Post Office threatened the workers on strike in Algiers with dismissal without notice. The postal employees had organised a one-week strike to protest against the government’s delay in fulfilling its promises regarding the disbursement of grants and incentive bonuses to workers.

In May 2021, Algerian firefighters went on strike to demand an increase in their wages and an improvement in their working conditions. The Ministry of Interior announced the suspension of 230 firefighters and their immediate prosecution, considering their protests "a betrayal of the duties and responsibilities entrusted to them".