Kurdistan employees vow to escalate protesting steps
Shafaq News/ On Thursday, teachers and employees in the Kurdistan Region announced that they would continue their strike, stressing that their decision was independent and would not be reversed under any pressure.
In a press conference attended by Shafaq News, protest representative Hawri Ahmed confirmed that the salary crisis in the region has persisted for years, with employees and teachers suffering from delays in payments, alongside the suspension of any increases since 2016. “This situation has led them to take a firmer stance, including strikes and school closures in areas such as Al-Sulaymaniyah, Garmian, Raperin, Halabja, and Koysinjaq in Erbil province.”
The protesters pointed out that it has been a year since the Federal Supreme Court’s landmark ruling regarding the direct payment system for employee salaries in the region. They emphasized that “this ruling has not been implemented due to corruption and lack of transparency.”
Ahmed clarified that the core issue lies in the failure to implement the decision to deposit salaries in Iraqi government banks, stressing that this delay has “not only failed to solve the problem but has exacerbated it.” The protesters also stated that they “have lost confidence in the current financial system,” rejecting the opening of new bank accounts and demanding that their salaries be transferred directly from the Iraqi Ministry of Finance to their accounts, without intermediaries.
Additionally, the protesters called on Iraqi government banks, through their branches in Al-Sulaymaniyah, to begin immediately paying their salaries as a first step toward resolving the crisis. They also sent a message to officials of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), urging them to act swiftly to implement the Federal Court’s decision and avoid further delays in employees’ rights.
Concluding their statement, protesters announced broader actions planned for Sunday, which will span all cities and regions, aiming to escalate pressure until their legitimate demands are met.
The Kurdistan Region has faced a severe financial crisis for years due to the irregular payment of employee and teacher salaries, which has led to increased protests and growing calls for the implementation of the Federal Supreme Court's decision to deposit salaries through Iraqi government banks.
Kurdistan’s Salary Crisis
The Kurdistan Region is facing a severe salary crisis, with unpaid public sector wages for December 2024 and January 2025 sparking widespread unrest.
The crisis is rooted in ongoing political tensions between the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Erbil and the federal government in Baghdad.
At the heart of the dispute lies the issue of oil revenue sharing. Baghdad insists that the KRG must transfer all oil production to the State Organization for Marketing of Oil (SOMO), with revenues funneled into the national treasury to fund salaries and production costs. The KRG, however, argues that it should deduct production costs before remitting the remaining revenues.
