Teachers in Libya have escalated their protests over salaries into an open-ended strike at public schools. Protests began on September 13, the day the school year was due to start. Sit-ins were held outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli.
Two weeks later, Libya’s teachers union stepped up the campaign with a nationwide strike. It has kept students out of classrooms across the country. On Sunday, several Libyan unions representing other sectors threatened to join the strike unless the government entered talks to address a cost of living crisis.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah of the internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU) in Tripoli met with cabinet members to discuss a response to this crisis. Libya has struggled with economic and political instability since a 2011 uprising ended the rule of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The strikes are occurring on both sides of Libya’s political divide: its western region, governed by the GNU, and its eastern region, which is under the control of renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar’s self-described Libyan National Army.
In April, the rival legislative bodies of both sides agreed a unified budget for the first time. Teachers said they are facing declining salaries, unpaid arrears, insufficient benefits and deteriorating school conditions. They demanded an immediate halt to what they called the “erosion of workers’ incomes”, citing deteriorating economic and living conditions.
Principal Muftah Khalifa told Al Jazeera Arabic that teachers were protesting against the government’s failure to respond to their repeated demands for higher and unified wages, health insurance and protection on and off school premises. Teachers told the news agency they face problems ranging from a lack of computer labs to desks being too dilapidated to use. Staff and parents often have to pay for equipment themselves.
A key demand is the adoption of a unified pay system that would balance a large disparity in pay between workers in different sectors. It is a call that other unions have now rallied behind. Libya’s unions said on Sunday that the system should take into account changes in the cost of living and the fluctuating dinar-US dollar exchange rate.
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