Why is there renewed controversy over employee salaries in Libya? Experts answer

Middle East: Jacqueline Zaher
The salaries of government sector workers in Libya have turned into an issue that is almost constantly being debated and debated, as they consume nearly half of the state’s public expenditures.

This comes amid warnings from politicians and experts about the danger of the continuation of this reality on the country’s economy and development rate, with Libyans also increasing complaints about the incompatibility of these salaries with the high prices and high cost of living.

According to the report of the Ministry of Finance of the “National Unity” government, the salaries and the like item topped the list of Libya’s expenditures during the year 2023, recording 59 billion and 998 million dinars out of a total of 125 billion and 726 million dinars. (The dollar is equal to 4.81 dinars in the official market).

A member of the Finance Committee of the Libyan House of Representatives, Al-Mahdi Al-Awar, expected an increase in salaries to approximately 70 billion dinars with the activation of the unified salary scale law approved by Parliament more than a year ago. Al-Awar warned in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat of “the increase in the share of salaries in the budget, year after year,” and believed that this “is considered a threat to the country’s development projects and rates, whose percentage of total expenditures reached 11 billion and 998 million dinars.”

Al-Awar spoke about dual employment in Libya, and said that “a significant number of state workers combine their public job with another in the private sector, and most of them, unfortunately, evade the first in order to perform the second,” noting that “initial or temporary treatment currently requires imposing mechanisms to ensure the presence of workers.” In the government sector during the scheduled working hours, and accelerating campaigns to combat dual employment.

He pointed out that the crisis “is not in citizens combining two jobs at the same time to keep up with the cost of living, but rather in their weakness or perhaps lack of productivity in the government sector, while demanding an increase in their government salaries.”

Since March 2022, two governments have been competing for power in Libya. The first is the interim “national unity” government, headed by Abdul Hamid Al-Dabaiba, and its headquarters in the capital, Tripoli, and the second is the “stability” government supported by the House of Representatives, headed by Osama Hammad, and stationed in eastern Libya.

The Libyan economist, Suleiman Al-Shahoumi, did not deviate from the previous proposal by warning against the increase in the number of workers in the government sector, which is approaching two and a half million employees, which is a very large number compared to the population.

Al-Shahoumi said in a statement to Asharq Al-Awsat, “The private sector is limited, and mostly seeks skilled and efficient personnel, and therefore cannot absorb large numbers of researchers or those qualified to join the labor market.” He pointed out that appointment in the government sector “is the easiest and safest way to ensure obtaining a stable salary and social insurance, whether joining civilian work or armed formations affiliated with state agencies.”

Estimates and statistics from official bodies regarding the total population of Libya during the year 2023 varied between 7 and 8 million people.

Al-Shahoumi identified a set of “factors that are required to advance and strengthen the private sector,” including “political stability of the state, unification of executive authority to reassure local investment, and encourage it to participate strongly, especially in the fields of construction, industries, and other sectors capable of providing broad job opportunities.” “And with better benefits that motivate young people to give up the dream of government appointment.”

Al-Shahoumi criticized the approach of successive governments after the “February Revolution” to use appointment to the government as “a means to gain the loyalty and satisfaction of the street,” and said: “Officials, instead of serving and fueling their political goals, should have raised awareness of the danger this poses to the future of the country and its citizens.” He pointed out that “many Libyans have no source of income other than the government salary, and therefore appointing their children like them to any of the state institutions has become a major goal for them.”

Meanwhile, Professor of Political Sociology at the University of Benghazi, Hussein Al-Sharif, stressed that “Libyans’ attachment to government employment has been entrenched since the era of the regime of the late President Muammar Gaddafi,” and according to his vision, treating this deep-rooted culture “first requires strengthening the rights of workers in the private sector through legislation, and working to train young people.” In various sectors in accordance with needs.