University staff protest in Basra and Kirkuk over unpaid July salaries

BASRA — University lecturers and employees protested in Basra and Kirkuk on Wednesday over salaries that have not been paid, with staff at the University of Basra saying payments that once arrived on the 16th of each month are now running 45 to 50 days late.

Staff gathered outside the university presidency building on the Shatt al-Arab Corniche. “Our salaries used to be paid on the 16th of every month, but they gradually began to be delayed until the gap reached about 45 or 50 days, and we still have not received last month’s salary,” employee Hussein Sabih told 964media. Their demands also cover allowances, promotions and the recognition of academic degrees, paid retroactively, he said.

Hanan Ali, at the university’s College of Medicine, said July salaries were still outstanding on Aug. 5, 20 days past the usual date. “Over the past two years they have been delayed into the following month,” she said, adding that most staff have no other income.

Diaa Faleh al-Fukaiki, head of the Basra branch of the Academics Syndicate, said employees from several universities in the governorate joined the sit-in, which demanded the release of delayed salaries and “the establishment of a fixed mechanism for paying them, particularly university service employees who depend entirely on these salaries.”

Lecturers at Northern Technical University in Kirkuk protested for a second time after salaries were held for nearly two weeks. Several said colleagues live in rented housing and cannot absorb prolonged delays. “They threaten us and say they will cut our salaries,” lecturer Aya Sardar said. The university comes under the federal Higher Education Ministry and its staff are paid by the Finance Ministry.

The protests followed calls from staff at universities in Kirkuk, Basra, Babil and Tikrit for coordinated action over salary delays, accumulated entitlements, degree recognition and promotions. Acting Higher Education Minister Abdul Hussein al-Mousawi said Tuesday he was following the issue with the finance minister and that payments would be released within days, without giving a date.

The government confirmed last week that Iraq is in a financial crisis and that salaries would be delayed until sufficient funds were available. The Finance Ministry began funding July salaries on July 28 in stages, covering security institutions and the Popular Mobilization Forces first before moving to civilian agencies. Some permanent Education Ministry employees in Basra did not receive theirs until early August.

Officials have put the government’s monthly salary obligations at between 8 trillion and 10.8 trillion dinars, though Finance Ministry accounts for the first four months of the year show civil servant wages running at about 5 trillion dinars a month.