Despite the KRG announcing over the weekend it plans to ease the salary saving system, schools and hospitals have remained shut in Sulaimani.
The system was introduced in 2016 as part of austerity measures to address the crippling economic crisis. The highly unpopular cuts have provoked a backlash among public sector workers.
On Saturday, health workers protested outside Sulaimani Teaching Hospital, while teachers lobbied outside Sulaimani’s main courthouse. They demanded “guarantees” and action from the government to pay them on a regular basis and end the saving system.
“Health workers will continue their strikes,” Hawzhin Othman, head of the Kurdistan Health Syndicate Sulaimani branch, told Rudaw during the protest. “Though the decision the government has made is positive, but we do not foresee any guarantees provided to us in order for the decree to take effect. Thus, we are waiting for the government to fulfill these promises in practice.”
“Our wages must be paid on time every month, not receiving it one month, then waiting three or more months for the next,” he said.
The government “must set a mechanism to pay back the two and a half year savings it has saved for health workers,” he added.
“As long as the saving system is in place, we will not abandon our protests,” read signs held by striking health workers. “What do you want, workers? We want our full salaries paid,” they chanted.
However, the Kurdistan Health Workers’ Syndicate announced on Thursday it will end its strike after the government announced it would ease the salary cuts system.
“We are calling on all the Kurdistan Region health workers to return to their work for the public interest, saving the lives of the honorable families of martyrs and people,” it stated Thursday evening.
Sarkawt Jalal, a strike organizer and board member of the Health Organizations Syndicate, said “boycotts will not stop.”
“The decree the government made to improve the salary saving system is deemed by us as a discount, not an improvement,” he told Rudaw.
“Our only condition to resume work is the abolishment of the saving system, and the payment of wages on time,” he insisted.
Othman Golpi said teachers will not end their strikes until their demands are “fully met.”
“In fact, we are determined to expand the circle of our protests and stay on the streets, because the government’s promises are only words, they are not turned into practice,” Golpi told the channel.
He added they would continue the protests until the saving system is completely abolished.
Golpi said however, there had been no pressures by the government to force them to end the strikes.
Amid growing fears that students in the Sulaimani province will miss a year of studies, seven universities across the province issued a joint statement saying classes would continue as normal.
The statement was issued by Sulaimani University, Sulaimani Polytechnic University, Koye University, Garmiyan University, Raparin University, Halabja University, and Charmo University and Kurdistan Board for Strategic Studies and Scientific Research.
“We should work together to help make sure studies continue across Kurdistan’s universities,” the statement read. “We will clear any obstacles in the way of the education system during the very short time left for this academic year.”
The statement went on to add: “It is also very important to not let the education process at our universities fall victim to political agendas and it is very important for us to work to avoid politics and election campaigns impacting the education process.”
“We will maintain our efforts for improving the livelihoods of teachers and our universities’ employees and their financial requirements will be paid by the universities.”
In the Kurdistan Region capital Erbil, the Dissatisfied Teachers and Civil Servants Board announced in a press conference it will end its strikes, and in the meantime put forth a set of demands to the government.
No classes were cancelled in Erbil, although a number of teachers and health workers staged strikes and protests last week for a number of consecutive days.
The board described the government’s move as “positive” and urged the full removal of the saving system in the next phase.
They claimed they would tentatively suspend their strikes and asked teachers to resume work starting from Sunday.
This past week saw a wave of mass protests across the Kurdistan Region, as civil servants led by teachers and health workers demanded the abolition of the government’s unpopular austerity measures that have seen wages in the public sector slashed.
KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani announced revisions to the system on Wednesday, saying low-earners would receive their full salaries and deductions from higher earners would be reduced.
The move largely ended protests in Erbil and Duhok provinces and reduced protests in Sulaimani and Halabja provinces.
Civil servants, who have struggled for around two years under the austerity measures, have established councils and committees in their regions to pressure the KRG to meet their demands after Baghdad sent funds to Erbil for the salaries.
