Abyei health minister Aguer Meer Albino announced that September salaries will not be paid to civil servants who also work for aid organizations in the area.
Aguer told the Abyei Today that those civil servants have been absent from work. He threatened to dismiss them if they fail to report to government institutions.
“The suspension of the salaries is the first step so that those people can come, if they don’t come, a disciplinary committee will be set up, and we may dismiss them officially according to labour laws,” said the minister.
He said some employees have come back to work in Agok Hospital. For their part, civil servants with second jobs at aid groups said the administration should sit down with them to solve the issue amicably instead of issuing threats.
They pointed out that the procedures followed by the administration may force some of them to quit government jobs, especially doctors and nurses. The workers said the move could affect the civil service in Abyei. “To me, this decision is not good because when we work in the hospital run by MSF, we benefit from it in terms of experiences, the citizens can also benefit from our qualifications,” said one of the employees.
“In the hospital run by MSF, we find medical equipment, so we can learn from it and benefit.”
Separately, the United Nations Interim Security Forces for Abyei (UNISFA) have been asked to pay their local staff in US dollars instead of local currency.
Nearly 390 workers including 12 permanent workers went on strike on 1 November demanding to be paid in dollars due to high living costs in the area.
UNISFA spokesperson Daniel Adekera told Radio Tamazuj that the UN mission has already filed the complaints of the local staff to the UN headquarters in New York, saying a meeting was held to discuss the issue.
He predicted the issue will be solved by next week so the local staff can resume work. He said there are slow procedural steps in New York to solve the issue. He stressed that UN the mission is keen to look into grievances of it staff