Page 67 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Abderrahmane Benouaret: Towards Regulating Freelance Work and the Informal
Economy in Algeria: Will the Self-Employed Contractor Law Suffice?

Similarly, a study by (Akhmetshin, Kovalenko, Mueller, Khakimov, Yumashev, &
Khairullina, 2018) examined freelance work as a form of new entrepreneurship, focusing
on the legal status of freelancers under modern legislation. The study found that countries
such as the United States, Russia, and Germany have enacted laws and legal frameworks
to legitimize the freelance sector and integrate it into the formal sector.

In Tunisia, a neighboring country to Algeria with nearly the same socio-demographic
characteristics, a simplified system for sole proprietorships was legislated through a
government decree issued on June 10, 2020, regulating the activities of self-employed
entrepreneurs through simplified administrative, financial, and commercial
procedures (Fekih, n.d).

In Algeria, self-employed and freelance activities were regulated by (Law 22-23,
2022), which includes the basic law of the self-employed contractor. Not many studies
have examined this law as a framework for regulating informal jobs in Algeria, except
for three theoretical studies in Arabic, all of which addressed the conceptual aspect of
the self-employed entrepreneur law. These include studies (Souilem & Hadjamar,
2024), (Bouazza, 2023), and (Benazzouz, 2023).

By referring to the content of the self-employed law in Algeria, it is clear that its aim
is to regulate many new activities that have emerged with the spread of modern
technology and the knowledge economy, which are not subject to any legal
framework. This law defines the self-employed contractor as any natural person who
individually conducts a profitable activity that falls within the list of activities eligible
for benefiting from the self-employed contractor’s basic law (Law 22-23, 2022).

The activities eligible for acquiring the status of a self-employed contractor were
defined through Executive Decree 23-197, issued by the Prime Minister on May 25,
2023, which specifies seven fields of activity:

− Consulting, expertise, and training (Field No. 01)
− Digital services and related activities (Field No. 02)
− Services directed to individuals (Field No. 03)
− Domestic services (Field No. 04)
− Entertainment and leisure services (Field No. 05)
− Services directed to institutions (Field No. 06)
− Cultural, communication, and audiovisual services (Field No. 07)
These fields encompass 1,300 sub-activities, excluding free professions, regulated
activities, and crafts (Executive Decree No 23-197, 2023).

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