Civil servants in Malakal town in Upper Nile State on Tuesday morning peacefully demonstrated in front of the General Secretariat of the state government over non-payment of six months’ salary arrears and the new amendments to the salary structure.
Several of the state government workers told Radio Tamazuj that they were demonstrating due to the non-disbursement of salary arrears since August and the nonpayment of civil service allowances.
An employee of the state education ministry, who only identified himself as Zakaria, said they were asking the government to pay salary arrears from August and to include civil service allowances in the salaries.
“The salary for the month of July was paid and the government promised to pay the month of August,” He said. “We did not ask for wages for the months of August, September, October, November, and December.”
Another state worker, Santino said, “We are asking the government for six months salary arrears, so we organized a peaceful demonstration in front of the government secretariat so that they can respond to the worker’s demands.”
For his part, Chol Atem, the police official, confirmed that the employees went out in peaceful demonstrations demanding financial dues from work allowances, saying: “Yes, there was a demonstration that took place and they were addressed by the authorities and the demonstration was ended.”
For his part, state finance minister Val Deng said what happened was a misunderstanding and that they reached a consensus with the workers’ committee regarding the payment of financial benefits and salary arrears.
“The demonstrators’ committee presented the workers’ demands, including bonuses and allowances, and we reached an understanding with them that the state will pay these benefits from local revenues, and this needs time,” Minister Deng said.