RAMALLAH
A strike by thousands of Palestinian civil servants brought work in most government offices in the West Bank to a standstill on Thursday, with strikers accusing the government of taking them for granted.
The strike was organized by the Association of Public Sector Employees, which announced on Thursday that 97 percent of the West Bank's civil servants had joined the strike.
The association added that workers would also stage a general strike on March 2 and 3.
"The government takes civil servants for granted," deputy association head Maan Ansawi told Anadolu Agency.
The association is currently mulling further escalatory measures, he said without elaborating.
Ansawi stressed that striking civil servants only wanted the government to implement the terms of an agreement it signed last year with the association.
The agreement commits the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) to compensating civil servants for recent inflation, granting risk allowances to engineers, and raising junior civil servants' salaries.
AA could not obtain an immediate comment from PA officials regarding Ansawi's assertions.
The strike, however, did not extend to the Palestinian health or education ministries.
There are roughly 156,000 civil servants in the West Bank who receive a combined total of $130 million in salaries each month, according to official data.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
