University employees demonstrate for equal rights

Administrative employees of Yemeni public universities protested in front of the Cabinet last Thursday, demanding equality to their peers in other state positions. They were joined by other government employees in the protest for equal rights, who are also not treated fairly. 

Administrative employees do not have the same rights that academics and teachers universities have, according to Mohammad Moudhesh, head of the Coordination Council for the Yemeni Public Universities’ Employees Syndicate (CCYPUES). 

“Though all employees of public universities, whether administrative employees or academics belonging to the same institution, a difference exists between administration staff and teaching staff regarding rights,” he said, pointing out that academics are included in high education law which guarantee their rights while administrative employees are not included in this law and legislation. 

“There is no difference between academics and administrative employees in neighboring countries. All employees have the same right so long as they belong to the same institutions which governmental universities whilst here in Yemen is different; administrative employees do not have the same rights that academics have,” added Moudhesh.     

Moudhesh said that they are protesting for inclusion of these rights, as they belong to the same institution. “We only urge for our rights. Our salaries should be increased, and we should be offered other services which will encourage us to improve our performance.” He said that administrative employees have to work for around 25 years to get the same salary as an academic, who has the same qualifications as the administrators. There is discrimination between academics and administrative, according to him.

Moudhesh says that by protesting infront of the Cabinet, their voices will be heard. “This is a peacefully protest. If officials ignore us in the upcoming protest, we are going to strike until we get their demands. We in the seven Yemeni public universities will strike if they do not pay attention to our demands.”   

Ahmed al-Couli, Assistant Secretary CCYPUES, continued to iterate that they being are overlooked by law and legislations of public universities. He said that five governmental bodies do not belong to the legislations of the government and universities are one of those bodies. He said that they demand taking on the violations that accompanied the transference process in the salaries and wages structure during the execution of the first phase in universities stated in Law 43, 2005, article 6, clause 7.

“The clear evidence of the discrimination between administrative employees and academics is taken administrative employees out of high education legislations,” added al-Couli. 

“Another thing we call for is amending the by-law of public universities which ignored the article3, 14, 17 and 59, which give administrative employees their rights, of universities law which related to administrative employees,” added al-Couli. 

Al-Couli said that they want responsible people to raise employees via contracts. As it is known, employees with contracts have very low salaries, which hindering their ability to live comfortable life, particularly in the current condition. 

“We want the President’s election program to be implemented, which stated that conditions of public universities employees should be improved [by doing many things for them and offer them more services].” 

Employees via contracts have tough conditions and suffer for many reasons such as low salaries. The employees are deprived from having higher salaries to be able to feel the dignity of life. Their salaries do not extend 12,000 YR, which is usually spent on transportation with not enough for food, according to Mohammed al-Mekhlafi, the representative of employees via contracts.

Al-Mekhlafi pointed out that law has guaranteed their rights. Article 43 stated in law of 2005 which minimum salaries are YR20,000, and less than this is considered a poverty. However, salaries of employees via contracts do not exceed YR13,000. 

“Contracted employees are human beings and have rights just like their peers of state employees. Public universities offer their employees services while they do not care about contracted employees as if they did not belong to the same institution,” added al-Mekhlafi. 

Contracted employees complain of their low salaries which do not help them to live comfortable life especially in the bad current conditions due to prices increasing. 

“The contracted employee is supposed to work for six months only, according to law. Then she or he will be a state employee [registered in the Ministry of Civil Services and Insurance], but what happens is that they work for more than 13 years with the same salary,” said Safia al-Mohammadi, an employee at the Central Library at Sana’a University.  

Al-Mohammadi said that contracted employees not only have lower salaries, but they also do not have the right to take part in a workshop or a training course which might help them to improve their skills that are offered to state employees.

When asking the nearly 1,000 contracted employees in Sana’a, they all complain about the same thing, salary. “What is a person to do with only YR10,000 of the whole month? How they can mange to provide themselves with all their needs,” said Asmhan al-Bada’ani, an employee at Student Affairs at Sana’a University. 

Al-Bada’ani added that even with lower salaries, they demonstrate higher standards, such as punctuality. They do not work only form 8 to 2 PM like employees of state, but rather they work form 8 to 6 PM which means their duties are more than their peers, meaning that on a time basis, they are vastly underpaid compared to their peers.

Those who took part in the protest said that  this protest is peaceful and they only demanded their rights. “We only want officials to know that we want to get our rights. We ask for equality with academics so long as all of us work for the same institution- public universities,” said Naneela al-Sormi, an employee at Faculty of Education, Sana’a University.  

“I wonder why salaries of doctors of universities have increased while ours are still stable. Life keeps on changing and being difficult, and as you know prices increase every day which means that our salaries are not enough. Officials only tell us promises while they are doing no thing when we ask for our rights,” added al-Sormi.

“I have been working for more than 30 years in the female student’s residence while my salary is the same that first got when I start working. We have heard of many salaries strategies but they are just ink on paper- no implement of these strategies and plans,” said Hadheah Masan. 

Moussan said that they can not live with the same salary from 30 years ago. “Life is changing and prices increase everyday.”    

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