Syrian government fails to address public sector pay crisis

The average cost of living for a Syrian family of five exceeds 3.6 million Syrian pounds, more than 35-times the average government salary. Hence, it's not surprising that many civil servants are trying to find something better, either at home or abroad.

The Syrian regime doesn't release reliable figures, so it's difficult to know how many of Syria's public sector workers have left their jobs.

But media reports suggest that hundreds, if not thousands, of government employees in various governorates, including Sweida and Latakia, have quit over the past year.

The number of workers whose resignation requests are still pending, or have already been rejected, is believed to be even higher.

Over the last decade, tens of thousands of Syrian civil servants have abandoned their posts. According to an April 2021 report by the Danish Immigration Service, an estimated 138,000 cases involving workers leaving a public position without notice were filed with courts between 2011 and 2017.

Of the 50,000 verdicts, 38,000 cases were decided in favour of the state and 12,000 in favour of the employee.

Punishments ranged from fines to being charged with terrorism; the Syrian government considers defection from a public sector position to be a political action or an anti-government activity, the report said.

Punitive measures aren't the regime's only course of action.

Unfullfilled promises

Prime Minister Hussein Arnous, who has conceded that salaries are significantly lower than living costs, raised public sector pay by 30 percent in December 2021. Since then, government officials have promised an additional 25 percent increase, though that raise has yet to be delivered.

The regime has also been offering one-time bonuses to government employees, including a grant of 100,000 pounds given in August and December of last year.

The government has also increased the tax-free allowance for civil servants, from 50,000 pounds to 92,000 pounds, effectively lowering their income tax burden.

But these measures were too little, too late for many, and the resignations continued.

In response, the regime issued a directive last month that ministries must be stricter when reviewing resignation requests, and an application can only be approved if the employee is no longer needed by their department. Even then, decisions to grant separation must be approved by the national intelligence agency.

Given these added layers of bureaucracy, many employees' resignation requests are being automatically rejected. Those that aren't are subject to interrogation by security forces, a clear intimidation tactic designed to keep people in their jobs.

As a result, many civil servants in regime-held areas are likely staying in their jobs out of fear.

But the deteriorating economic situation in Syria means that without stronger intervention, the gap between income and living expenses will continue to widen.

The regime's current policy of providing small salary increases and one-off bonuses is failing to improve morale, and public sector workers are unlikely to be satisfied until they are paid a livable wage.

Otherwise, there will come a time when civil servants have no choice but to pursue work that covers more than the commute to the office.