Speech by President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
on International Labor Day

Carthage, May 1st, 2003

In the Name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate


Fellow-citizens,

We celebrate today, along with the other nations of the world, Labor Day, to consecrate the values of effort and diligence, and to honor workers-men and women-in all jobs and positions, expressing to them our consideration for the efforts they exert in order to consolidate the foundations of comprehensive national development and to contribute to reinforcing Tunisia's progress and prosperity.

On this occasion, we extend our compliments to the Tunisian General Labor Union and commend its role, alongside of the Tunisian Union for Industry, Commerce and Handicrafts, and the Tunisian Union for Agriculture and Fisheries, in reinforcing the foundations of stability and social consensus, and in safeguarding the necessary balances for our development action, stimulated by their sense of responsibility and commitment to the country's supreme interest.

While congratulating those who have just been honored, we express our consideration to all who endeavor, with diligence and perseverance, in order to achieve distinction and excellence, and all who show a sense of creativity and initiative, and work tirelessly to increase production and improve its quality, and to reinforce our enterprises' capacity to face up challenges posed by the rapid changes and fierce competition on the international market.

Fellow citizens,

The year 2002 witnessed a new round of social negotiations in the public and private sectors. These negotiations reflected the attachment of all the concerned parties to dialogue which we have adopted as a constant choice, in order to promote labor relations, consolidate confidence among production partners and establish developed professional relations based on solidarity and mutual assistance.

While expressing our satisfaction with the results emanating from this new round of negotiations, we highly commend the deep awareness of all the concerned parties as to the critical nature of the current juncture, and the necessity to preserve our national economy's solidity and balances, as well as the foundations of social peace enjoyed by our country.

In 2002, the first installment of the triennial wage increases in the public and private sectors was paid. The second installment will be paid in the course of the current year. Moreover, and as has been our custom every year since the Change, we have endeavored to continuously increase the guaranteed minimum wage in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors, so that its amount has increased twofold since the Change.

Keen on protecting the purchase capacity of low-income employees, we announce today our decision to increase the guaranteed minimum wage in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors. The government will be in charge of fixing the amount of the increases, after consultation with the concerned professional organizations.

Moreover, to make sure wage increases benefit all categories of employees, we also announce our decision to increase the wages of workers who are not subject to collective sectoral agreements or to other special statutes.

I am quite certain that all parties are aware of the critical nature of the current juncture and of the challenges it involves, as a result of the difficult situation experienced by the world economy and its expected repercussions on the pace of growth and on the level of exchanges and transactions. We, therefore, reiterate our call for further dedication and diligent effort, in order to improve productivity and the level of production, in such a way as to increase the attractiveness of Tunisian products on the local market and to reinforce the competitiveness of our economic enterprises and enable them to win foreign markets.

We announced, on May 1st, 2002, our decision to create, within the national institute for work and social studies, a special department to be in charge of research in the field of productivity. We hope that our enterprises will benefit from the results of its works so as to win the battle of competitiveness. For indeed, productivity is a responsibility commonly shared by workers, employers, and managing officials. Its improvement is imposed by the necessity to preserve the existing jobs, to create new employment opportunities and to ensure the enterprise's durability and stability.

This reflects, as experience has shown in developed countries, the importance of dialogue in organizing labor and improving its conditions, in promoting in-service training of workers and ensuring their safety at work, and in finding appropriate solutions to overcome the difficulties that may face enterprises or obstruct their development.

No doubt, professional organizations have a big role to play in consecrating those values, developing the culture of enterprise, and sensitizing the concerned parties to the magnitude of the current and potential challenges, in such a way as to contribute to reinforcing our economy's balance and solidity and to protect our development action against all fluctuations.

In our country, economic development and social development represent two components of the same policy whose aim is to mobilize all means and capabilities in order to provide optimum conditions for work and production and to consolidate the foundations of progress and welfare.

In the age of economic globalization, the durability of enterprises has become, to a great extent, dependent on their competitive capacity, control of costs, sound management of resources and properties, promotion of human resources and protection of workers from occupational risks.

For that reason, we have attached all due importance and care to the sector of health and safety at work, by adopting appropriate legislation and by taking initiatives and measures to ensure its efficiency and development, especially after we established the structures specialized in this field and offered incentives and encouragements to enterprises and social partners, in order to promote training and re-training programs and conduct studies and research works intended to develop the sense of prevention within enterprises.

Besides, we have introduced fundamental changes into the organization of prevention, by making the safety function compulsory, and by generalizing health coverage in all enterprises, regardless of the number of their employees and the nature of their activities. Occupational health services have also been restructured, in such a way as to adapt them to the requirements of the current period and to improve the protection offered to workers in small enterprises which constitute the majority in our economic fabric.

After the encouraging results we have managed to achieve, as shown by the improvement of indicators in this field, we give our instructions today to elaborate an evaluation study concerning the system of occupational accidents and occupational diseases in the public and private sectors, in order to reinforce the results achieved, to avoid difficulties that may arise in the application of this system and to protect the rights of all the parties concerned.

We have also managed to achieve a high percentage of social coverage, which reaches today about 84% of the total active population, in addition to the continuous increase of pensions and benefits.

In this regard, we call upon all parties to intensify sensitization campaigns in order to make known the various social coverage systems and the measures intended to ensure effective coverage of all workers.

On several occasions, we gave our instructions to take the necessary measures to facilitate their affiliation with these systems, including the exemption, from compulsory taxation and late payment penalties, of those who spontaneously go and ask to be affiliated, after expiration of the legal deadlines.

Fellow citizens,

We have paid a great attention to the promotion of employment and the control of unemployment, in order to preserve the dignity of the individual and to protect a basic human right. We have directed our efforts to the reinforcement of investment and the acceleration of the pace of growth, and oriented our economic and social policy to serve our objectives in the field of employment, so much so that the most important reforms which we have made and the structures and mechanisms that we have established since the Change and that we continuously enlarge and evaluate, have all converged toward the attainment of this objective.

Thanks to this policy, we have managed to increase the number of jobs created from one plan to another, and to improve the rate of coverage of the additional job demands. Moreover, with the evolution of the situation of the labor market in the country, the volume of these demands has increased and their structure has changed, as a result of the arrival, on the labor market, of successive numbers of holders of university diplomas.
In addition to the attention we have paid to the efficiency of adaptation and professional integration mechanisms, we have endeavored to create new mechanisms to support this effort, by stimulating the sense of initiative and creativity and by offering incentives to the launching of enterprises and to self-employment.

Since its creation in 2000, the National Employment Fund has acted in favor of 247,000 beneficiaries, with funds exceeding 218 million dinars. Besides, the Fund has played an important role in the qualification and training of large numbers of job-seekers having low education levels, associated in most cases with the absence of any qualification. Its interventions have thus benefited 170,000 candidates belonging to this category, in addition to about 17,000 university graduates.

Independent labor has, on its part, played an important role in achieving employment objectives, more particularly in modern sectors and new professions related to immaterial economy and the modern communication technologies, in addition to the efforts of the Tunisian Solidarity Bank in the field of small projects creation. This is why we have established a coherent program for the encouragement of enterprise creation and the stimulation of innovative projects. We hope that the measures taken will allow to develop the sense of initiative and to establish new structures to help and supervise promoters, diversify the funding mechanisms and mobilize the necessary means to win this stake.

We will pursue efforts to reinforce our country's capacity to attract foreign investments, to improve the management of the labor market, and to further make known the various incentives and encouragements provided for that purpose, thanks to the programs we have established to develop the basic infrastructure, modernize the transport and communication sectors, simplify administrative procedures, introduce reforms into the banking sector, and upgrade the workforce and develop its capacity to integrate within the globalized economy.

Fellow citizens,

We have asserted that work is a fundamental value in our civilizational project, and that effort and diligence are our way to achieve our national objectives.

While we have recorded numerous achievements on the path of progress and development, we rely on the sense of responsibility motivating our organizations, enterprises and workers-both intellectual and manual, and on their awareness of this critical juncture and its enormous challenges, so that they all join their efforts to stimulate the process of comprehensive development, and consolidate the foundations of the society of consensus, solidarity and welfare, and so that all Tunisians-men and women-act in the service of their country and the progress of their people.

Thank you for your attention.

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