Al-Fayad: Teachers’ Salaries No Longer Match Living Costs; Demands Include Health Insurance and Legal Protection
LIBYA – Saleh Al-Fayad, head of the teachers’ union in Gharyan in western Libya, said Libyan teachers face difficult living, economic and health conditions, noting that teachers have spent long years carrying out their educational mission under hard circumstances.
Sit-In Continues Until Demands Are Met
Speaking to Sputnik, Al-Fayad said current salaries no longer match living conditions and rising prices, especially when compared with pay in other sectors. He said this pushed teachers into a sit-in to demand their rights, and stressed that the protest would remain open until the demands are answered and fulfilled.
He said that if the legislative and executive authorities are serious about developing education in Libya, they must address teachers’ demands, which he described as legitimate — chiefly unifying salaries with other sectors and achieving social justice in pay.
Class Allowance and Health Insurance
Al-Fayad said promises had previously been made on the class allowance, but that it had still not been implemented, stressing that there had been no tangible results on improving teachers’ conditions — which is why they continue the sit-in to demand that their rights be implemented.
He stressed the importance of providing health insurance for teachers, saying the service is available to some sectors but not to teachers as required, amid sharply higher costs of treatment, clinics, hospitals and medicines, which increase the burden on teachers and their families.
He noted that several unions had declared solidarity with teachers’ unions and support for their demands, including the Intermediate Technical Education Union, the Higher Education Union and educational inspection, alongside other bodies, saying the solidarity reflects the scale and importance of the demands for the education sector.
Demands Dating Back to 2012
Al-Fayad said teachers had been seeking their rights since 2012 without sufficient response, through to 2018 when Law No. 4 was issued — which was not fully activated and was implemented mainly as a salary increase.
He added that even after the unified pay scale was adopted, teachers remained at the bottom of the list of beneficiaries, stressing that their demands are not limited to higher pay but also include activating health insurance and providing legal protection for teachers, especially given the pressures and challenges they face in their work.
He said more than 70 unions in the western region had joined the sit-in, explaining that participation was aimed at unifying teachers’ demands and pushing for their rights to be met.
