Government fails to pay salaries; civil servants continue strike

The main trade union for civil servants in the Central African Republic (CAR) has said that many of its members would continue a strike that began in October as the government has not paid them salary arrears as agreed. "The strike will not come to an end unless the government fulfils its promise," Noel Ramadan, a representative of the country's largest trade unions, the Union syndicale des travailleurs de Centrafrique (USTC), said on Friday. In an agreement signed on 12 November with the union, the government promised to pay two months salary arrears by 25 November. However, CAR Labour Minister Jacques Bothy told IRIN on Friday, "There are administrative problems that have made it impossible to withdraw the money from the bank." He said workers should be paid by next week but added: "For technical reasons the government is only in a position to pay one month's [arrears]". Civil servants in various ministries had been boycotting work in the hope of pressuring the government into paying the money as promised. On Friday, some 50 USTC union members gathered at the union's headquarters to express their frustration. "There is no sign that the government is really willing to keep its promise," Jeanne Kezza, a union member who was in tears, said. "My son is sick and there is no money to care for him".