2022-04-21

WESTBANK

West Bank / Core Program / position paper

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