Kurdistan
Healthcare workers protest unpaid salaries in Duhok province on September 22, 2021. Photo: Rudaw
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - A group of healthcare workers in Duhok on Wednesday staged a protest, saying they have not been paid for five months.
To help cope with the coronavirus pandemic, 115 temporary health workers were hired in Duhok and their contracts approved by the health ministry in May. But “we haven’t been paid for around 145 days,” Bassam Shawkat, a health worker at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Duhok coronavirus hospital, told Rudaw’s Naif Ramadhan.
He said they have been repeatedly told by authorities that their files are being processed.
“We don’t want it to reach the point of a strike. On the contrary, we have gathered here so that relative sides, government authorities who are responsible for this job, will answer our demand and pay our salaries,” said Shawkat.
Nizar Salih, deputy head of health worker affairs of Duhok, told Rudaw English that the contracts are in the last stage, waiting for a final approval from the Ministry of Finance.
Rudaw English reached out to the Ministry of Finance, but they were not immediately available for comment.
The cash-strapped Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has struggled to pay civil servant salaries in full and on time for more than seven years, due to the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), disputes with Baghdad, and a drop in oil prices. It imposed a freeze on new, permanent hires.
The KRG has received payments of 200 billion dinars from Baghdad the past couple of months, an advance on its share of federal funds under the budget, which has not been fully implemented.
To help cope with the coronavirus pandemic, 115 temporary health workers were hired in Duhok and their contracts approved by the health ministry in May. But “we haven’t been paid for around 145 days,” Bassam Shawkat, a health worker at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Duhok coronavirus hospital, told Rudaw’s Naif Ramadhan.
He said they have been repeatedly told by authorities that their files are being processed.
“We don’t want it to reach the point of a strike. On the contrary, we have gathered here so that relative sides, government authorities who are responsible for this job, will answer our demand and pay our salaries,” said Shawkat.
Nizar Salih, deputy head of health worker affairs of Duhok, told Rudaw English that the contracts are in the last stage, waiting for a final approval from the Ministry of Finance.
Rudaw English reached out to the Ministry of Finance, but they were not immediately available for comment.
The cash-strapped Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has struggled to pay civil servant salaries in full and on time for more than seven years, due to the war against the Islamic State (ISIS), disputes with Baghdad, and a drop in oil prices. It imposed a freeze on new, permanent hires.
The KRG has received payments of 200 billion dinars from Baghdad the past couple of months, an advance on its share of federal funds under the budget, which has not been fully implemented.
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