Publication
Omar Shaban Ismail · Sawa News Agency · 2020
An opinion column by Omar Shaban for Sawa News Agency against the "financial retirement" that Rami Hamdallah's government imposed in March 2017 on Palestinian Authority employees in the Gaza Strip alone, who keep working while being paid a retiree's salary and losing their allowances and promotions. He calls it an illegal measure that breaches the Civil Service Law and discriminates between employees by geography; it covered more than 6,600 employees, cutting some salaries from 4,000 to 1,700 shekels, deepening poverty and the political division. He urges Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh to honour quickly his pledge to cancel it and pay back what is owed.
Omar Shaban, 2020: the 'financial retirement' imposed on Gaza's PA employees is illegal and discriminatory, and must be cancelled.
Financial retirement is an illegal and utterly illogical administrative measure with no equivalent anywhere but Palestine. It was adopted by the previous Palestinian government, headed by Dr Rami Hamdallah, as part of a package of "measures/sanctions" in March 2017.
Financial retirement means that an employee carries on doing his public job as usual while being paid a retiree's salary. On top of that, being classed as financially retired deprives the employee of benefits the law grants him, such as the allowance for supporting parents, the spouse allowance, the allowance for children studying at university and for an unmarried daughter, as well as freezing promotions and withdrawing the transport allowance, among others.
How can you be a teacher who goes to work every day, a doctor who goes on serving the people, or a school principal who raises generations, and be classified as "retired"!
Depriving employees of these entitlements is an injustice in itself and a breach of the Civil Service Law, which is in effect the contract between the employee and the government.
Depriving employees of their entitlements also has serious social and economic repercussions, among them rising poverty, leaving the employee unable to fulfil his moral duty toward his family and parents, more domestic violence, and the deepening of political and moral extremism.
These decisions are applied only to employees of the Palestinian National Authority in the Gaza Strip, which in itself is discrimination between employees who are supposed to be subject to the same law: discrimination based, regrettably, on geography.
Financial retirement has covered more than 6,600 employees in the Gaza Strip, so the harm of this measure is great and cumulative. Financial retirement means that an employee's salary becomes 1,700 shekels instead of an original 4,000. Financial retirement and salary cuts are an affront to the dignity of employees and their families, and they deepen the political division.
The salaries of public-sector employees are a right guaranteed to them by law and a deserved reward for their work. They are a basic component of gross domestic income and of activity in the local economy. Palestinian public-sector employees are an important element in development and in building the institutions and structures of the state. Public-sector employees in any country are the cornerstone of development and stability, and treating them fairly contributes to political and social stability and to social justice.
Prime Minister Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh has pledged to cancel this unjust measure, which shows his awareness of how important and necessary it is to cancel it.
I add my voice to those of thousands of employees and their families in calling on the Prime Minister, Dr Shtayyeh, to move quickly to implement his pledge to cancel financial retirement and to return the sums owed to Palestinian public-sector employees.
Achieving political and emotional unity among the people of one nation requires applying the principle that "all are equal before the law and under it".
Topic: Palestinian Economy — public-sector salaries · Gaza employees · Palestinian division — Text © Sawa News Agency — archived here with attribution to the source. — Original source