Sulaimani teachers fighting salary-cut system refuse to return to work
SULAIMANI, Kurdistan Region – Striking teachers in the city of Sulaimani have rejected calls to end their months-long strike which has forced public schools to close, impacting the academic year for hundreds of thousands of students.
A group of teachers who organize a daily picket line in Sulaimani said on Monday night that their main demand – the immediate end to salary-cuts – remains in place.
They said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s recent reduction to the salary cuts is a “good step,” but insisted more needs to be done to convince teachers and public employees to return to work.
“We announce that tomorrow on Tuesday, wide protests and marches will take place at 9:00 a.m. in front of the Sulaimani court. And if the promises are not followed by actions, we will have nationwide actions,” a teacher said, reading a statement from the group. Teachers have pitched a protest camp near the city’s courthouse.
Dilshad Omer, the director general of Sulaimani’s education directorate, earlier in the day warned that the education situation in the province is in danger, discouraging the continuation of strikes.
The KRG has promised to pay the salaries according to a new system announced last week that will significantly eases the cuts by up to 60 percent. State employees, especially teachers and health workers in the provinces of Sulaimani and Halabja, call the changes unsatisfactory.
The teachers say they will end their strike once the government commits to pay the salaries in full and every 30-day, and for the government to announce a mechanism to pay back the amount cut from their wages since 2016 under the salary-saving system.
The strikers said teachers are free to choose whether they go back to work.
The salary saving system was introduced amid a financial crisis in 2016. The unpopular austerity measures have resulted in salaries being delayed, reduced by various amounts to civil servants, and sometimes not sent at all.
The highly unpopular cuts have provoked a backlash among public sector workers with protests spreading in March throughout the Kurdistan Region's major cities.
Sulaimani education head in emotional plea: End the strike, return to work