Striking West Kordofan locality workers ‘unpaid for 48 days’

The open-ended strike by employees and workers in West Kordofan, which was called-out on November 14, is still ongoing in all the localities. They complain that their salaries have not been paid for 48 days.

An activist from Babanusa said the problem is that even if the salaries are received, they would be in the form of cheques. However, there is not enough liquidity in the banks to cover the salaries and that five of the 14 localities in West Kordofan have no banks at all. Workers’ cash-flow woes are further stressed by a major surge in prices of consumer goods in the markets.

He said the salaries do not meet two per cent of the necessary living needs of workers.

He pointed out that some groups in El Fula locality have been paid salaries, while the workers of Babanusa and the rest of the localities have not received salaries to date. All the working sectors are reportedly on comprehensive strike.

Liquidity crisis

Sudan has experienced strikes across the country for the last few months by government workers and teachers, who complain that salaries are paid late or not at all.

The teachers’ committee in Sudan’s El Gezira state called-out a strike on Tuesday in various localities because of the delay in payment of their salaries for the month of October.

On October 22, teachers of the basic and higher secondary schools in Bindisi in Central Darfur entered into a strike in protest against the non-payment of their salaries for three months in a row.

One of the teachers told Radio Dabanga at the time: “The strike will last for a week, and if salaries are not paid before next Monday, we will continue to strike until our salaries are paid.”