Sudan Labour Ministry: Compensation, reinstatement for dismissed civil servants top priority

Sudan’s transitional government has resolved to ‘give top priority’ to assessing, reinstating, or fairly compensating workers arbitrarily dismissed from Sudan’s civil service during the Al Bashir regime, and the popular uprising that overthrew it.

At a press conference held at the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers in Khartoum on Monday by the committee formed to investigate arbitrarily dismissal from the civil service from June 1989 to December 2018, Tahani Burhaneldin, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Labour and Social Development, confirmed to reporters that “the transitional government decided to give the arbitrarily dismissal cases top priority because it is an important issue”.

During the 30 years of the Al Bashir regime, arbitrary dismissal was frequently used as a ‘weapon’ against civil servants who were accused of opposing the government or ruling National Congress Party in any way. More recently, Scores of workers were summarily dismissed for taking part in marches, protests, and vigils related to the December 2018 popular uprising and revolution that culminated in the overthrow of Al Bashir.

Clear methodology

Undersecretary Burhaneldin clarified that the committee has developed a clear working methodology. She said that the actual procedure will be done by filling-in forms to collect the data of those who were arbitrarily dismissed from government institutions. They will be fairly compensated, including those who have died in the meantime.

El Rashid Saeed, First Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture and Information confirmed that the government gives the issue of the arbitrary dismissal cases the highest priority in achieving justice, and that is one of the slogans of the revolution.

Reinstatement

He explained that the committee has classified the dismissed cases and decided that anyone who was arbitrarily dismissed from the civil service is entitled to return to service in the institutions where they worked, on condition that the person is under 65 years old.

Saeed stressed that any ministry or institution must fill out the forms regarding the dismissal cases and submit them to the committee.

He said that for those who have passed the age of 65 and whose pensions were settled during the former regime, “their settlement must be revised for fairness and justice”.

Pension

Saeed says that the government is considering the possibility of paying appropriate compensation according to the classification of cases and personal files. However, in the case of those who have died, he explained that their families will be compensated according to the functional grades in the civil service until the moment they would have entered the pension system.

He added that the committee will send the form to the ministries. The simplified form includes only the name, date of birth, place of working, date of joining the institution, the date of dismissal, the grade of employment at the time of dismissal from the civil service, specialisation, and some other basic information of each case.

He explained that the main objective of the committee is to fairly rehabilitate or compensate those who were arbitrarily dismissed and to achieve justice.

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