YEMEN: University teachers strike for higher pay

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

SANA, 24 Feb 2005 (IRIN) - Teaching staff at state-run universities across Yemen have gone on strike following a breakdown in talks with the government over pay and conditions.

According to Dr Abdulrahman Ghanem, head of the supreme council of university teaching unions, the strike decision was taken after the "government closed all the doors of dialogue and understanding". Ghanem accused the authorities of failing to keep a promise made last year to raise the salaries of its 5,250 teaching staff.

"The government kept making [empty] promises. Now, the Minister of Finance refuses to implement the agreement," he told IRIN in the capital, Sana, adding that government officials did not care at all about the strike threat. He said the strike was very much a last resort for teachers, who had been careful not to go on strike during exam times. "We have tried several times to avoid taking such a step but the government told us 'go on strike'," he claimed.

Teachers in the state sector say that poor working conditions are making it hard to retain staff, many of whom are attracted to opportunities abroad or to work in the private sector, which offers better remuneration.

"This is a serious problem which is resulting in a brain drain," Dr Iqbal al-Alas, spokesman for the unions' council, told IRIN. He said that dozens of Yemeni PhD holders had left the country to join universities abroad, including around 80 professors who are now teaching at universities in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). He also noted that some of those who are sent on academic scholarships abroad never come back because of low salaries in Yemen.

Many of those who do stay have to take second jobs in the private sector to make ends meet, which can have a detrimental effect on their performance and their scientific research, observers say.

"I've got a master's degree. How can I live on US $160 per month? How can I conduct research or even have access to the Internet? It is impossible. I have got offers to work with some private companies for a very handsome salary. If our situation does not improve, I will quit the university and look for a better life," Mohammed al-Sharabee, a language lecturer at Sana University, told IRIN.

The average income for ordinary civil servants is around $80 per month, with university assistant professors receiving $500.

But the government has hit back at the teachers, saying they have acted hastily when preparations for new salary levels were already under way.

Minister of the Civil Service, Hamoud Khaled al-Sufi, said the strike was "very wrong". "The timing is not appropriate at all because the government has finished preparing a national strategy for wages as well as the draft law on salaries and the wages system. Al-Sufi also told IRIN that he had presented the information on improvements for civil service salaries to parliament on Wednesday, a week into the strike.

Union representatives met the government on the same day, but no agreement was reached. On the question of last year's pay deal, the prime minister has asked the Minister of Higher Studies, Dr Abdulwahab Raweh, to take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance, unions council spokesman al-Alas, told IRIN. But he stressed that the strike would continue until a concrete deal was reached with the government.

Al-Sufi conceded that previous amendments made specially for lawyers, judges and school teachers had failed to address the low-pay question for civil servants in general, but he added that the new strategy would address this point and be debated in the coming days.

"The strategy, which was carried out with the help of local and international experts, will consider the value of the job rather than the minimum level of payment that takes into account poverty considerations," he said.

Al-Sufi also said that he accepted the right of university teachers to ask for better salaries as "we believe that we cannot fight against corruption if the salaries do not cover the needs of government employees".

He was confident that the new strategy would help to stem the flow of university teachers to the private sector and abroad, while stressing that the government would not give in to any demands until the new wage strategy was put in place.

[ENDS]