Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali on Labor Day
(Carthage, May 1st, 2008)
In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate
Fellow citizens,
We celebrate today, along with all the peoples of the world, Labor Day, to pay renewed tribute to intellectual and manual workers in all positions, and to highlight the values of action and effort as the means to enhance the process of development and to ensure progress and prosperity for our country.
I would like to thank the Secretary-General of the Tunisian General Labor Union for the noble feelings he has expressed in his address. I also take this occasion to pay tribute to all workers for the diligence and enthusiasm they have shown in accomplishing their tasks, and to commend the role of their strong organization, along with the Tunisian Union for Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts and the Tunisian Union for Agriculture and Fisheries, in anchoring the traditions of dialogue and consensus. This, in fact, has had a positive impact in providing a climate of confidence, entente and cooperation among all social partners, in improving working conditions within enterprises, and in increasing productivity, and ensuring sound professional relations.
While rejoicing at our country's celebration, each year, of Labor Day honoring all those who distinguish themselves with their devotion and effort, I would like to congratulate all those who will be honored in a moment. To all of them, I express my thanks and encouragement, hoping this distinction will prompt all Tunisians, men and women, for further devotion and commitment in the accomplishment of their work, at a time when there is no place for anyone who shows laxness or lags behind in the competition among peoples.
I also would like to thank the International Association of Labor Inspection for awarding me its first Medal. Special thanks are due to its Secretary-General, Mr. Paul Weber, for his kind words toward Tunisia and its leadership. To him, I would like to express my deep consideration for the commendable action undertaken, on the international scene, by this Association to promote labor inspection.
Fellow citizens,
We are pursuing our initiatives to guarantee the rights of workers, to protect their interests, and to improve their purchasing power. In 2007, the third and final installment of the three-year pay-increase program, decided through the previous round of social negotiations in the public and private sectors, was paid. This has offered workers and civil servants regular annual pay-increases since the Change.
Constantly determined to protect the purchasing power of low-income wage-earners, we announce our decision to increase the minimum guaranteed wage in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The government will set the amount of these increases after holding consultations with the concerned professional organizations.
As our celebration of Labor Day coincides this year with the launch of a new round of social negotiations, we are convinced that all partners are aware that our national economy is going through a delicate stage as a result of the excessive and continuous rise of the prices of oil, cereals and raw materials, and its repercussions on the national economy.
Despite all these difficulties, we are committed to ensuring the regularity of rounds of social negotiations, relying on the determination driving all partners to ensure the success of this new round, as was the case in the previous ones, and to make sure it is brought to completion in due dates.
The social security gains accomplished for our workers and all categories of our people constitute a source of great pride for all of us, and prompt us to move ahead in improving the social security cover rate, which now verges on 92%, and to implement the major reforms required by the evolution of society. We will continue, as part of our Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia, to improve the social security cover rate, so that it reaches 95% by the end of 2009.
The new health insurance system came into force in 2007, in accordance with a gradual approach aimed at consolidating our gains and promoting the public health sector so that it can meet the requirements of each stage. This action, undertaken in cooperation with all the concerned national partners, aims at upgrading this sector, improving the quality of preventive and curative services, and promoting training and scientific research.
While preparing to launch the second and final phase of this reform as of July 2008, we rely on the sense of responsibility driving all partners to observe the rules of gradual action and to show prudence in applying this system and setting health insurance rates. The aim is to avoid overspendings, and to preserve the financial balances of the health insurance cover systems, as a result of the increasing burdens of retirement systems and the rise of expenses at a pace higher than contributions.
The sector of health and occupational safety has been offered all due attention, by creating specialized structures, establishing incentives and encouragements, carrying out research and studies, reinforcing sensitization and awareness-raising campaigns, and anchoring the culture of prevention. This has helped us achieve encouraging results in this field, illustrated particularly through decreasing the rate of workplace accidents, and increasing fourfold the number of enterprises covered by occupational medicine groupings and private medical services during the past decade.
In line with this orientation, we give instructions for establishing a national program for the management of occupational risks, to be formulated based on an in-depth analysis of the present situation. It shall include objectives, indicators, mechanisms and programs that can help provide a healthy, safe and sound work environment.
Promoting work performance, optimizing its organization, and developing human resources are a collective responsibility to be assumed by the two production partners within enterprises. Both partners are called on to continuously find efficient ways and means to increase the pace of production, to improve productivity, to enhance the quality of products, to rationalize the consumption of energy, and to find appropriate solutions to the difficulties with which our enterprises might be confronted. It is necessary to endeavor to consolidate our economy's competitive capacity, to achieve our self-sufficiency and food security, and to preserve jobs and create new ones, in line with the orientations of our Program for Tomorrow's Tunisia, and with the qualitative and quantitative objectives set by the 11 th Development Plan, particularly those related to employment.
Employment remains my priority ; work being a fundamental human right and an essential factor for safeguarding human dignity. It is today a major challenge we are striving to meet, using all our available means and capacities.
We have established numerous incentives and encouragements to promote employment in all sectors. We have diversified initiatives to provide the largest number of jobs for new university graduates. We have taken a host of practical measures to stimulate the sense of initiative, to encourage young people to engage in self-employment, and to broaden the scope of action of the National Employment Fund (21-21) so that it covers a larger number of job-seekers. We have also focused attention on promoting development in the regions, by modernizing infrastructures, enlarging road networks, and generalizing higher education institutions, high institutes and remote labor centers. This has helped attract investment, promote enterprises, and create further jobs and sources of income, especially in priority Governorates.
On the other hand, the specific program for employment in priority delegations, and the specific program targeting members of needy families, have made it possible to achieve the objectives set for this stage.
We give instructions today to undertake a meticulous assessment of the realities of development in priority delegations, and to diagnose the situation in delegations that still need support, in order to establish a new specific program corresponding to their reality and keeping up with their conditions.
To meet the challenge of employment, we rely on the social partners' understanding and awareness of the challenges with which we are confronted. In fact, employment can be promoted only by instilling the culture of action and initiative, and embracing the values of perseverance and diligence in all positions. Moreover, employment can be promoted only with strong enterprises having a high ratio of managerial staff, and a great capacity for competition, for winning foreign markets, and for penetrating sectors that open large prospects particularly for university graduates, especially in promising occupations for which we will lay the ground during the coming stage.
On this occasion, we renew our call for all the concerned partners, including political parties, social organizations, specialized experts, and the associative fabric, to contribute to the National Consultation on Employment we have given instructions to hold during the current year, so that it covers all relevant issues.
We also pay all due attention to vocational training. We are keen on upgrading this sector and improving its performance to the level of international standards, especially that our country is preparing to implement major economic projects that will accelerate the pace of development and provide additional job opportunities for job-seekers.
We have promulgated the new law on vocational training in order to meet the requirements of the current stage, and in line with the recommendations and proposals emanating from the National Consultation on Vocational Training. Through this reform, we aspire to increase the in-take capacity of the national system of vocational training to 160,000 trainees in 2011, and to enlarge the scope of continued training, so that it encompasses 300,000 beneficiaries as of 2009. Moreover, we have established a new structuring of the human resources qualification system, based on optimizing the correlation and complementarity between the sectors of education, vocational training and higher education, in such a way as to establish bridges between these sectors. We have established a “Professional Baccalaureate” to offer further training opportunities for holders of this diploma, and to encourage enterprises to hire the more skilled among them.
To broaden the network of technical preparatory schools, we give instructions for creating 56 schools as of the beginning of the next school year, while making sure they cover all regions of the country. This in addition to the decision we have previously announced for the creation of a “Qualification Diploma” to be granted to anyone having received a training corresponding to his qualifications, to help him achieve integration within the job market, and for the application of the principle of “a diploma for each trainee”, in order to stimulate craftsmen to acquire expertise in handicrafts occupations and to promote them.
In this regard, we give instructions for reviewing the national classification of qualifications, and to promptly create an observatory of emerging and innovative skills and occupations, which will help optimize the prospection operation, keep up with technological advances, and meet the needs of the national economy in terms of competent and skilled cadres.
Fellow citizens,
We are keen on providing care to our human resources, consolidating their capacities, and further upgrading them through various means of guidance, education and training. We, in fact, believe that Man is our durable capital, and our most efficient path toward progress, invulnerability and prosperity. We essentially rely on the awareness of our professional organizations, workers and enterprises as to the delicate stage and the huge challenges confronting us. We are confident as to the Tunisians' attachment to their country, and their devotion to serving it, defending its interests, and enriching its gains, within a context of cooperation, solidarity and consensus, so that we continuously move ahead, and ensure all conditions of promotion and success for our development process.
Thank you for your attention.
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