Civil servants serve Chagor 48-hour notice to appear in Bor

Hundreds of civil servants in Jonglei State yesterday staged the Bor strike to demand a 100 per cent salary increment.

They gave Governor Denay Jock Chagor 48 hours to return to Bor to address their concerns.

The group was demanding what they called “fair payment” through the inclusion of what they dubbed as “nature of work allowance.”

In an interview with the Secretary-General of the Jonglei State Workers’ Trade Union (WTU), Samuel Majier, said they want to see governor Denay Jock Chagor back in the state to resolve their issue.

“We have now resolved for the governor to come back and assure us of full payment and allowances. We want to agree with the governor, not anybody else,” Majier said.

“The allowance we are claiming is called the nature of work allowance, which is added on top of the 100 per cent salary,’’ he added.

He added that the strike would continue until their demands are met by the state government.

The state acting governor, Tuong Majok Deng, said they had accepted to give them their demand, but they should not refuse to receive their salary.

“Jonglei State is implementing the order of the President for 100 per cent salary, but they don’t want to receive that by claiming that they need additional allowances,” Deng said.

“When the governor comes, this allowance will be discussed in the council of ministers, and the council of ministers will try to get a means of paying these allowances,’’ he added.

He said that the delegates that the WTU sent them agreed to convince the civil servants to accept their salaries.

Call for demonstrations

The Union last week called for a mass demonstration of civil servants in demand for their 100 per cent salary increment, which was announced by President Salva Kiir Mayardit on the tenth anniversary of the country’s independence.

In a statement extended to The City Review, the union rejected what they called a new salary structure and indicated that the state government had modified the salary structure, which they called a “denial of their civil rights.”

“We reject the modified salary structure by the state government (as) we immediately lay down our tools. The statement read in part, “These actions will go on until the state government sees the need to meet the 100% increment of civil servants’ salaries in accordance to new structure and the state Ministry of Public Service endorsement through the new payroll,” the statement read in part.

In response to the letter, the acting governor of Jonglei State, Tuong Majok Deng, who is also the State Minister of Cabinet Affairs, said the salaries in question were prone to deductions since they were gross salaries and some taxes needed to be removed for the net salaries to remain.

 “My concern as the acting governor of Jonglei state is that there are allowances which have not been in the system of Jonglei since 2005 called “nature allowances.” It is not there to be added to the salary, it was introduced by the new state government, ” Tuong said.

The salary increment was announced by President Salva Kiir during the independence celebrations on July 9, 2021. However, only a few states have picked up its implementation.