The Response of Public Sector Employees to Mr. Samir Halileh's Article Titled: "The Increase in Allowances: The Essence of the Salary Crisis"

Author: بسام زكارنة

We appreciate Mr. Samir Halileh's interest in Palestinian financial affairs and his attempt to analyze the roots of the crisis facing the Palestinian National Authority. However, we believe that his article, with all due respect, was not aimed at a realistic and objective analysis but rather seemed like a message for those searching for "leadership for the upcoming phase" rather than for those who are living in the midst of the crisis and paying the price day by day.

As public sector employees, we find ourselves compelled to clarify a number of essential facts that were absent from the article, which unfortunately led to placing the burden of a complex, multi-dimensional crisis—political, economic, and occupation-related—on the public employee, even though this employee bears the brunt of this crisis and provides service while his children are hungry or without adequate sustenance, concerned only with preventing the collapse of the authority as a precursor to the state and standing with his people against genocidal warfare.

First: About "allowances"... you did not mention them in your article, and we ask what allowances you are referring to?

Discussing "allowances granted without justification" is inaccurate; they do not exist at all, as there is a shortage of allowances.

The allowances received by civil and security service employees are paid according to official laws such as the Civil Service Law and the Security Forces Law, including:

    •    Professional allowances (such as for doctors, teachers, engineers, judges, etc.)
    •    Risk and nature of work allowances, some positions have not received them yet, and we are struggling for them according to the approved law, not making a new request.
    •    Transport and commute allowances

Social allowances (imagine a spouse allowance of 40 shekels, a newborn allowance of 20 shekels)
Is it fair to equate a doctor performing emergency surgeries in an operating room with a teacher burdened with excessive academic load with an administrative office employee behind a desk?

Does Mr. Halileh know that transportation costs have multiplied many times due to checkpoints?
Where an employee who used to commute for 5 shekels daily now pays 20-30 shekels daily due to the lack of smooth routes. Is a spouse allowance of 40 shekels fair, or a newborn allowance of 20 shekels fair!!! But this is what the law states and is not a favor from anyone.

Second: Salaries have not risen... but have eroded since 2014

Since 2014, the cost of living allowance has not been paid despite the law stipulating that wages should be linked to the price index, and even what was paid before 2014 has not been fully disbursed.
The result: the real value of salaries has eroded by up to 40%.

Moreover:
     •    Salaries have not been paid in full for over 44 months
     •    Employee dues have accumulated for more than 12 months of full salary, and the government has not committed to paying overdue interest; thus, the employee has lost 11% of the value of his dues and, moreover, was forced to take a bank loan and pay 11% on it, meaning the employee has lost 22% of the value of his rights.
     •    What is actually disbursed does not exceed 54% of the employee's total entitlements, and he remains steadfast in serving his people.
Nevertheless, no financial recovery has been recorded in the budget... so what is the real reason for the deficit?
Simply put, the occupation... and the cessation of European and Arab support, not the allowance of the struggling employee.

Third: Where is the occupation in your article?

It is strange to hold employees responsible without mentioning the occupation's role, which is the most influential party in the financial crisis through:

    •    Complete control over clearance funds (which constitute 70-75% of the revenues)
     •    Storming and targeting the infrastructure of ministries and facilities
     •    Preventing workers and traders from accessing 1948 territories
     •    Monopolizing natural resources in Area C
     •    Arbitrary deductions exceeding 850 million shekels annually

Can it be reasonable to discuss the salary crisis in isolation from these structural factors? Even the manifestations of corruption are unworthy to mention as a main reason, as they are not, and internally, our duty is to combat them without allowing them to be used as an excuse to punish the authority as if there are sufficient resources being embezzled by state officials. Yes, there are corrupt individuals who embezzle, but they are not the reason for the authority's inability to meet its obligations.

Fourth: Do you know the reality of the ministries?

We do not ask for privileges but for the bare minimum of a working environment where the reality on the ground shows:
    •    Severe shortage of personnel in health, education, interior, and finance
     •    Retirements without appointing replacements
     •    A doctor now works double shifts, and a teacher is assigned 30-35 classes weekly, knowing that the burden for a teacher is 21 classes, and so on in other ministries.
     •    Donated hospitals are out of service due to the lack of staff
     •    Class overcrowding in schools has exceeded 50 students in some of them

Is it required to drain the employee further and then blame him for "increased salary expenses" when his full salary does not provide a dignified life—some teachers work as taxi drivers to feed their children?

Fifth: Who speaks about “excessive spending”?

Public sector employees today, instead of being the backbone of the state, have become victims of a worsening living crisis:

    •    They do not receive effective health insurance despite monthly deductions, leading to a shortage of beds and medicines, often nonexistent.
     •    Their children are threatened with expulsion from universities due to accumulating tuition fees and face lawsuits due to bounced checks and fines due to inability to renew their licenses!!!
     •    They are evicted from their homes for failure to pay rent
     •    Water and electricity are cut off due to bill accumulation
     •    They live on bank loans at high-interest rates, without any legal protection

Did anyone call for lowering bank interest rates? Or reviewing telecommunications and electricity pricing? Or stopping repeated deductions on the same slashed salary?

And you say the employee is unjust!!! What kind of language is this... the employee is a martyr for his people now.

Sixth: What about unpaid rights?

Instead of talking about "increases," why don’t we remind about the rights that have not been paid at all, including:
     •    The cost of living allowance (stopped since 2014) and before that was fragmented.
     •    Scarcity allowance for critical specialties (anesthesiologists, lab technicians, lawyers, those working in leather tanning, heavy machinery drivers, etc.)
     •    Risk allowances for field professions in security and health that have not been paid to everyone.
     •    Promotions delayed for twice the legal period or more for both military and civilians.
     •    Military salaries have been paid at 50% since 2003, deducted by a decision from the martyr Abu Ammar!! And ask if you don’t know!

Where is all of this from the so-called "increase in allowances"?!
What if employees demanded the rights stipulated by law!!... It would have been better to mention this and say thank you to the resilient and steadfast employees!

Seventh: We want real reform... not superficial prescriptions

We are not against reform; on the contrary, we demand it...
But we refuse for reform to start from the weakest link: the employee's pocket.

If Mr. Halileh calls for the formation of a "Reform Commission," then we say:
   •    Representatives of employees and unions must participate
   •    We demand transparency regarding the cost of this commission on the treasury
   •    We ask clearly: Would any of the so-called "reform" experts accept a salary of less than 20,000 shekels per month?

Dr. Halileh knows that their salaries, and even his, range between 10,000 and 20,000 dollars!!
This means they earn multiples of the president’s and prime minister's salaries!!!

And we remind that some private sector consultants today earn more than 25 times the salary of a senior employee in the authority.

Are these the ones who can convince us to "tighten our belts"?!

Finally: The employee is not the crisis... but its victim

The Palestinian employee is the one who has kept the state standing under the most difficult circumstances:
    •    In the shadow of division
    •    And under siege
    •    And in the face of the absence of social justice

If there is anyone who should initiate "reforms," let it be from:
    •    The privileges of officials
    •    The budgets of independent bodies
    •    Reviewing the budgets for security and foreign offices
    •    Opening files on borrowing from the pension fund (over 4 billion dollars!)
    •    Firing the corrupt.
    •    Appointing experts in attracting aid.
    •    Placing the right person in the right place and stopping promotions without law.

The employee is not the crisis... but the backbone of the state.

Real reform does not start from his salary but from the structure of the authority itself.

We invite Mr. Halileh and anyone concerned with social justice to a real and transparent dialogue.
Not just on paper... but in the street where the employee lives every day a real crisis that surpasses all figures.