South Darfur Ministry staff strike for better wage

A large number of employees of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock of South Darfur organised a protest sit-in in front of the agricultural sector buildings in the state capital of Nyala, on Tuesday morning as part of a campaign of protests over the unification of the salary structure. The protesters chanted slogans condemning the low salary.

Marwa El Hajj told Radio Dabanga that the vigil aimed at putting pressure on the government to implement the salary structure and pay the workers’ rights in full.

In Red Sea state, protesting employees closed offices of Port Sudan locality in the city, demanding better wages.

Health workers in the state continued their strike for the fourth day, demanding an improvement in the salary structure.

In the same context, employees of the Ministry of Finance in Red Sea state staged a protest, demanding the implementation of the newly set salary structure.

As reported by Radio Dabanga yesterday, trade union leaders predict an increase in strikes in various parts of the country due to the deteriorating living conditions, poor wages, and salary adjustments. At least eight different strikes are happening in the country at the moment.

Trade union leader Mahjoub Kanari told Radio Dabanga that the current union void is one of the most important reasons for the current strikes.

Most of the trade unions were directly associated with the ousted regime of Omar Al Bashir (1989-2019). They were dissolved in 2019 by the new Council of Ministers, headed by former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, as part of legal reforms to dismantle the former dictatorial regime.

Kanari referred to a state of “feeling unfairness and injustice” among the workers, explaining that the government was unable to deal with the economic and legal problems.

He warned against any unsystematic or unrealistic treatment of the salaries and said that this could lead to disastrous results.

He called for a comprehensive treatment of the issue of remuneration by allowing re-instatement of independent unions and restructuring the tripartite mechanism made up of the government, the private sector, and trade unions.