Thousands of teachers in Iraq protest against unpaid salaries
Protestors in Sulaymaniyah. Photo: Winthrop Rodgers
Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – On Sunday, in Sulaymaniyah and Halabja provinces, thousands of educators took to the streets to voice their dissatisfaction over unpaid salaries spanning several months. They issued a stern ultimatum, threatening not to resume their teaching duties unless the government promptly disburses their wages.
The demonstrators articulated two primary requests: non-contract teachers pressed for secure, long-term positions, while permanent teachers demanded the government to pay their wages for the months of August, September, and October.
These protests unfolded across various locations in Iraq, including the city center of Sulaimani, Halabja city, Garmiyan, Raparin independent administrations, and the Koya district in eastern Erbil.
Civil servants in the Kurdistan Region endured roughly three months without pay before an agreement was reached in mid-September between Baghdad and Erbil. In this agreement, the federal government agreed to providing the KRG with 2.1 trillion Iraqi dinars to cover salaries for a three-month period.
Iraq has officially revealed its intention to disburse the 2.1 trillion dinars in three equal parts, designed to cover the salaries for September, October, and November. However, the KRG utilized the initial 700 billion dinar installment of the loan to compensate for July salaries, leaving the civil servants without pay for August as well.
Faced with financial difficulties, the KRG implemented a hiring freeze, unable to meet its commitment to paying civil servant salaries promptly and completely for almost ten years due to the ongoing financial crisis. The economic challenges in the northern region of Iraq have escalated in recent months, primarily stemming from Turkey’s suspension of crude oil flow through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline to Ceyhan port in March, following a decision from a Paris arbitration court. This suspension has inflicted substantial financial losses amounting to billions of dollars on the KRG.