After several months of general strike by Palestinian governmental employees, an agreement was signed on Saturday afternoon between representatives of the workers union and the government represented by vice prime minister, Nasser Ed Deen Al Sha’er. All employees will resume their normal duties on Sunday.The agreement was supervised by the President’s office and members of the Legislative Council. It states that all employees will end their strike and the government will start scheduling their late salaries.
The government will pay a full month salary to all employees, military and security personnel on January 25, and will reschedule all late salaries by four or five payments in accordance to a plan presented by the Minister of Finance.
The salaries of military and security personnel are already in the accounts of the Arab League and will be transferred in cooperation with the office of the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas.
The employees will also receive transportation payments for the period of the strike. The decision voids a previous decision by the Ministers Council that decided not to pay the transportation costs.
Also, the agreement states that a committee will be formed by the Fund authority, the president’s office and representatives of the Workers Union in order to find solutions to bank interests that accumulated on the employees.
All government decisions regarding firing some of the employees will be voided, and a probe committee will be formed to look into these issues. The president’s office, the government, some ministries and the workers union will be part of the committee.
This agreement officially ends the strike, and all government employees are expected back in their offices on Sunday.
After the Palestinian general elections in January 25 2006, and the overwhelming victory of Hamas, Israel and the United States led in March a campaign that cut off all sorts of financial support to the Palestinian Authority.
