2023-02-09

West Bank

West Bank / Core Program / position paper

The key to a stable education: An independent Teacher’s syndicate, and no more tampering with their livelihood and job security.

Once again, the teachers have to resort to exercising their constitutional right to strike, in light of the government’s failure to keep its promise and fulfill its obligations towards them, which infringes on their livelihood and human security. Additionally, the teachers’ movement rises once again to this union scene, in which it explains, to all teachers and citizens, the reasons behind their decision to call a strike again.

MUSAWA has been closely examining the roots of this crisis, and it considers that the reason for this crisis lies in depriving the teachers of their right to form their own independent professional union (syndicate), that is elected by them, of their own free will and without any external interference. Therefore, the existence of an elected syndicate, which operates under the regulations adopted by the teachers, is the solution to this crisis. Moreover, the existence of such trusted authority that is chosen democratically means that the teachers will view its decisions as trustworthy, credible, and mandatory.

MUSAWA reiterates the demands it declared at the start of the crisis. Still, it emphasizes that this does not neglect the importance of providing the teachers with economic, livelihood, and job security including their financial demands. In addition, MUSAWA reshares the memo it addressed to his excellency the minister of education regarding the teachers’ employment rights that are guaranteed by the constitution, and the dangers of infringing on them, which is considered an infringement on the Basic Law and all the rights and freedoms protected under it as well as the ones protected under the agreements and international conventions signed by Palestine.

We emphasize once again the teachers’ right to form their own independent syndicate pursuant to the provisions of paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article (26) in the Basic Law, and warn of the futility of adopting the security approach in dealing with the teachers’ strike, and the risks of neglecting these rights. MUSAWA points to the fact that the crisis and the failure to fulfill the teachers’ economic rights is not due to the occupation cutting back on the payment of its dues, known as “The clearance revenues or the clearing funds”, to the Palestinian Authority, but rather due to the government’s policy in managing the budget and the public money especially in how it is employed, as the government is still creating new job positions, and increasing salaries and benefits. This qualifies as mismanagement of public funds, as the priority of the public budget should be to meet the needs of education and health, rather than tampering with and reducing its allocation.

MUSAWA

Ramallah

09/02/2023

MUSAWA’s Memo on the Deduction of Teachers' Salaries in Violation of their Constitutional Rights

His Excellency Dr. Marwan Awartani, the Minister of Education,

Subject: Deduction of teachers' salaries is illegal and violates their constitutional rights

MUSAWA – The Palestinian Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and the Legal Profession expresses its greetings, and states that, in its capacity as an independent civil monitoring body, it has followed the course and developments of the dispute between the Government and the teachers, and its attention was drawn to several administrative punishment issued by your Ministry against a number of teachers in the form of deducting a workday from their salaries under the pretext of their suspension of work after the third class.

The General Union of Palestinian Teachers (GUPT) has announced a program of union activities since the beginning of April, because of the delay in the disbursement of salaries, or partial disbursements as a result of the Government’s failure to fulfil its commitments under agreements of understanding concluded with teachers years ago, including its commitment to disburse the remaining cost-of-living allowance since 2013, and to resolve pending files such as curriculum benefits and General Secondary benefits.

Teachers have waited long without the Government's fulfilment of its commitments, which coincided with the disbursement of percentages of salaries that do not cover the outstanding salaries for a long time, which forced the teachers to carry out a series of union activities including the suspension of work after the third class in order to induce the Government to fulfil its commitments and secure their rights. Despite the establishment of a dialogue committee with the Ministry of education and the competent government bodies, the ministry of education - before the dialogue comes to fruition- overtook a number of teachers by imposing the punishment of salary deduction over other punish,emts, the repercussion of which can be imagined if dialogue was not open, in spite of the teachers having had taken a series of amicable procedures including the entirety of their union activities in order to make dialogue a success and achieve mutually satisfying results. 

The teachers' strike is not the cause of the crisis, but a natural consequence to it, whereas the real reason is the Government's reversal of its pledges and commitments. MUSAWA seriously views the imposition of the salary deduction punishment, for what it constitutes of a crisis deepening, blocking of the outlets of dialogue, and adopting a police approach when dealing with teachers demanding rights that the government has recognized as legitimate and committed to enforcing since years and has not yet fulfilled this commitment. The imposition of this punishment reflects the Ministry's exclusivity and having exceeded and not waited for the results of the work of the official committee formed to discuss -with the GUPT- a suitable or crisis-friendly output and an acceptable and appropriate mechanism for dealing with teachers' demands referred to above, including giving nature of work benefits that are equal to what other public sector employees are given.

The continued disregard for teachers' legitimate demands and the Government's reversal of its pledges, expose the teachers and their families to the greatest damages, particularly in the face of unprecedented price rising, increased costs of living and its negative impact on their security and that of their families and their entire community.

The punishment imposed by the Ministry constitutes arbitrary use of power, silencing and increasing the burden of life, and a negative impact on the entire educational process. It is not reasonable for a teacher to perform his/her job duties while his/her children are hungry. The financial crisis should not also be invoked to keep on ignoring teachers' demands formally recognized long ago, and continuing to place additional burdens on the treasury as a result of moving forward with public employment appointments and promotions, the thing that represents a contradiction affecting the principle of equality.

We believe that teachers should be granted their economic rights on the one hand and that there should be no political, partisan or security interference when organizing union rights, including teachers’ right to choose their union’s leadership in a way that enhances the status and role of the teachers' union, and subjects the mechanism for selecting the union’s leadership to the will of teachers themselves.

We believe that a constructive and participatory dialogue is the guarantee of the full representation of teachers' professional and union demands. In order to achieve its objectives, the salary deduction punishment should be immediately cancelled, and no other punishment of any kind should be imposed. Guaranteeing the success of dialogue and committing to the implementation of its outcomes is the most realistic and less harmful solution that must be followed.

We therefore demand your Excellency to consider our memo and take the legal requirement to stop the policy of punishments and urge various official parties, including the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Finance and your respected Ministry, to implement the demands of teachers at their professional and union levels, hoping that you will inform us of the measures to be taken in this regard.

With respect,

Issued on 21.04.2022

MUSAWA

MUSAWA’s Initiative to Solve the Teachers’ Strike Crisis

The Security Approach and Fighting the Livelihood Only Deepens the Crisis and Does Not Help in Resolving It.

News circulated on social media platforms that the government is planning to deduct the teachers’ salaries, despite being modest salaries, claiming that their strike is an act of absenteeing from work, even though their strike is a legitimate union struggle in defense of their union and living demands to protects their dignity, social status, mission and their educational role in building and establishing the Palestinian students, considering that they are the real wealth of this nation and the tool to protect the national identity and promote the principles of sustainable development of their people. Therefore, the teachers are subjected to what the government calls “procedures and administrative punishments” and it chose the harshest of them all which are salary deductions, transfer threats, forced retirement or the replacement of teachers with service providers.

Social media websites have pointed to the government’s continuance to ignore teachers’ legitimate demands, which stem from constitutional rights protected by article (26) of the Basic Law and the Declaration of Independence before it. Both have guaranteed Palestinians, without distinction, their right to participate in politics, as individuals and groups, and they have the right to establish unions, organizations, connections, clubs, and grass-roots institutions as per the law. They are also guaranteed the right to vote, run for elections, elect their representatives by public vote according to the law, and have the right to assume public positions through equal opportunities. This disregard that limits the crisis to the wage increase demand, that the government cannot even fulfill, and intentionally neglecting their right to form their professional, independent, democratic syndicate that is founded on the right to choose leaders that are qualified to express the teachers’ interests, demands and reach fair common grounds with the government regarding their rights, work and living demands.

We deem the government’s decisions and use of salary deduction and other forms of punishment, as well as disregarding the teachers’ right to form a syndicate based on the will of its members, is a representation of the government’s continuance to use the forced security approach in dealing with the citizens’ rights in all sectors of the country. This also neglects all the economic and social rights guaranteed by the Basic Law, especially in vital fields such as education, health, and agriculture. This is to allocate a large percentage of the budget for the benefit of the security agencies which causing huge financial burdens to The Public Treasury, as per the budget approved by the government for this year.

Treating the General Union of Palestinian Teachers as a grass-roots organization for the PLA as a part of PLO’s institutions and as a union for the Palestinian teachers in both Palestine and the diaspora, when in fact it is more closely tied in its tasks to the general political and national dimensions entrusted to the PLA. It should not confused with the teachers’ demands to form a teachers’ syndicate focused on the rights of teachers specifically in Palestine, that works to defend their rights and ensure their ability to carry out their mission, same as the lawyers, doctors and, engineers. Therefore, it is important to note that the teachers do not wish to substitute or compete with the General Union of Palestinian Teachers that follows the PLO institutions system. Moreover, depriving teachers of their syndicate on the grounds that it conflicts with the existence of the Union contradicts reality, and truth, and goes beyond the jurisdiction of both. This shows that using it is nothing more but a flimsy excuse to subjugate the teachers to the goverment’s policies.

We, as a civil monitoring body that is biased towards constitutional rights, consider education as “a make or break” tool that would lead to either the success or failure of a system, for it depends on the commitment of the system to enable the teachers to carry out their mission, and the failure of this is on the government. We also deem the adoption of the security approach and repressive measures against the security and livelihood of teachers and depriving them of their ability to express their will, despite the fact that this approach has been proven to be a failure in many systems throughout history as it is the most evident expression of the policy of collapse that directly contradicts the supreme national interest.

Therefore, we consider the solution to be the following:

- The government’s acknowledgment of the teachers’ right to form an independent, democratic syndicate that chooses its leaders according to the will of its general assembly. This acknowledgment represents the practical aspect of finding an end to this crisis, provided that the government immediately fulfills this.

- The government’s acknowledgment of the teachers’ right to livelihood, and the agreement with the elected syndicate on ways to achieve this in fixed periods.

- The cancellation of unconstitutional “punitive” measures taken against teachers due to their participation in the legitimate strike, and in the forefront of these measures are the salary deductions, transfer threats, forced retirement

- The abandonment of the government’s attempts to find replacements for teachers, as these attempts disregard and undermine the vital role of teachers in raising future generations.

We hereby announce our willingness for a positive intervention to guarantee that the government immediately fulfills the aforementioned requirements, and ensure the teachers acceptance of it, and therefore emphasizing the principles and values we have learned from a very young age that are put into words by the poet “Rise for your teacher and honor his rank, for a teacher is almost a prophet”.

17/05/2022

MUSAWA