Tunisia: Public sector engineers demand salary increase

Hundreds of public sector engineers in Tunisia yesterday organised a mass protest to demand a wage increase.

According to an Anadolu Agency correspondent, the protesters raised banners in front of parliament reading: “Specific increase is a right not an allowance”, and “Investing in engineers means investing in Tunisia.”

In a statement to Anadolu Agency, Mohamed Al-Wahaibi, member of the central office of the Order of Tunisian Engineers, said that the engineers’ struggle started in 2016 when the government decided to raise the wages of engineers, doctors and university professors, with the aim of curbing the number of skilled workers leaving the country.

Al-Wahaibi added: “In September 2019, the pay increase was activated in all working categories except for public sector engineers, who are estimated at 12,000.”

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He continued: “We entered a three-day strike (30 November, 1 December and 2 December), in conjunction with demonstrations calling for the wage increase that ranges from 350 to 750 Tunisian dinars [$130 and $280].”

The protest movement in Tunisia has expanded recently to reach many sectors, as demonstrators across the country demand the implementation of development measures in their governorates and improving economic conditions.