The President of the National Staff Association of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) has denied any intentions to go on strike over the level of salaries paid in January.
Bennett Khamis Kenyi said in a statement to Radio Tamazuj that the issue of low pay “is an internal issue which is being managed and does not need a strike.”
“UNMISS staff are not planning for an strike as reported by you,” Bennett said. Reports of potential strikes are meant to cause “chaos and confusion,” he alleged.
Citing staff sources, Radio Tamazuj published a story yesterday alleging that South Sudanese staff at the mission were threatening to strike.
The row over pay is a result of the devaluation of the South Sudanese Pound in mid December 2015. UNMISS national staff salaries are calculated in SSP but paid in dollars at the official exchange rate, which dropped from 3.16 SSP to the dollar in recent years to 18.50 SSP to the dollar since mid-December.
Some staff at UNMISS have confirmed reluctance to carry through with the threat of a strike. “Some staffs feared to go for strike because they don’t want to lose their job,” one staff said in an interview.
Yesterday a source who requested anonymity said that staff representatives have been in talks with the Compensations and Classification Unit at the Office of Human Resources Management at UN headquarters in New York over the matter, but negotiations ended in deadlock on Friday.
Related:
UNMISS staff threaten strike over low salaries after devaluation (25 Jan.)