The China Mail - Libya's pay strike rallies teachers across divided nation

Their demands include higher salaries, health insurance and compensation for overtime.

Classes for some 1.6 million public-school students were due to start in early September but have been postponed indefinitely, as teachers regularly take to the streets to protest over unmet demands.

"Libyan teachers are suffering," one Tripoli teacher, Fatima Ali, told AFP.

The 37-year-old was protesting on Tuesday to "demand our rights" and to have a wage raise "just like other public-sector employees whose salaries were increased".

The so-called "teachers' movement", now backed by the Libya teachers' union, held a large protest outside the government headquarters in the capital Tripoli.

Last week, it had already brought together thousands of protesters and threatened a general strike.

- 'Unfulfilled promises' -

Libya has been beset by violence and instability since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

It remains divided between the UN-recognised government in Tripoli led by Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah, and a rival administration in the east backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar.

Thousands of teachers have protested regularly since mid-September as the movement against "unfulfilled promises" spread from Tripoli to Benghazi, in the east.

The teachers want fair pay in accordance with the salary scale for all state workers, to ensure "social justice and decent living conditions in the face of inflation", said Achraf Abou Raoui, spokesman for the Libyan general teachers' union.

Public sector salaries vary by sector, but the union says the wage differences for educators are too wide and disadvantageous.

A public school teacher's monthly salary varies between 1,000 and 2,500 Libyan dinars (around $155 and $390) at the most, Abou Raoui said.

The teachers are also demanding medical coverage, which they have sought for years.

- Grassroots movement -

"The profession now demands tangible action and concrete measures," Abou Raoui, himself a teacher, added.

He said the strike has now been "100 percent" followed by teachers in the public sector. Schools in the private sector, however, have not taken part in the action.

Abou Raoui said the education sector employs nearly half a million teachers and administrative staff, adding that it was the first time a strike of this kind had attracted such broad support.

"Usually, it is the unions that mobilise teachers, but this time the movement came from the grassroots," he said.

The Tripoli-based education ministry has held several meetings to address the teachers' healthcare insurance demands.

But it has yet to comment on their request regarding wages.

The ministry also said it would bring changes to the school calendar, including cancelling holidays, to make up for classes missed because of the strike.

A.Sun--ThChM