United Nations staff strike in South Sudan Theniles.org Juba, 15/8/2012 – More than 20 United Nations agencies in South Sudan came to a standstill on Monday after hundreds of workers went on strike, calling for the same conditions as their foreign colleagues. UN staff converged at various UN bases from eight in the morning, demanding “equal rights” and urging the international institution to pay them in United States dollars instead of local South Sudanese pounds, which have been hit by steep inflation since the start of the year. In the capital Juba, an estimated 1,000 employees gathered outside the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ahead of a march to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan to deliver a petition. However, they changed their plans after the Police Inspector General Tito Achuil Madut advised them not to march. Dozens of police officers in ant-riot gear and plain-cloth security operatives kept a close eye on the protestors who waited in the hot sun under a UN National Staff Federation banner. Following a meeting with officials from the interior ministry, the union’s acting chairperson, Juma Khamsini, told workers to resume their normal duties. He told the staff that he had aired their grievances about payment in dollars and non-citizens occupying positions meant for nationals. Khamsini said another meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday with representatives and officials from ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Labour, Public Service and Human Resource Development as well as Humanitarian Affairs. “I want all of us to be good ambassadors. We will follow up on any cases of intimidation,” he told workers carrying placards. Employees argued that even if the official exchange rate for each dollar was at 2.95 South Sudanese Pounds, they would have been able to get up to 5.5 South Sudanese Pounds if they were paid in dollars and exchanged their earnings on the black market. In an interview, the Spokesperson of the UN National Staff Federation, Mal Maker Thiong who works with the United Nations sponsored Radio Miraya, said other issues were also important, such as the poor working conditions. He noted that the United Nations was not implementing orders from the South Sudanese government especially concerning issues of welfare. He pushed for payment in dollars arguing that staff were being affected by the current economic crisis, including sharp rises in food and fuel costs. He said they needed dollars to buy goods from other countries and to send to relatives abroad. Thiong added that working relations between national and international staff were poor, leading to what he described as mental torture. However, the demand for national staff remuneration in US dollars contradicts the November 2011 circular by the governor of the Central Bank of South Sudan, Cornelio Koriom Mayik saying that private and public cash transactions should be effected in local currency. “This practice of dealing in foreign currency rather than in our legal currency is not acceptable and should be discouraged,” reads the circular copied to government departments, financial institutions, non-governmental organizations and the public. Referring to Section 46 of the Bank of South Sudan Act, Koriom reaffirmed that the South Sudanese Pound is a legal tender that cannot be rejected in a financial transaction. The Spokesperson of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), Kouider Zerrouk, was unavailable for comment.
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