Palestinian workers to strike over half pay

RAMALLAH, West Bank, May 1 (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Palestinian civil workers will strike on Wednesday to protest the government's failure to secure their full wages unpaid since the militant Hamas group came to power in March 2006.

Government workers' union chief Bassam Zakarneh, after a meeting with the finance minister who offered to pay half salaries, said there would be a one-day strike on Wednesday.

He threatened a new round of work stoppages by more than 65,000 employees to demand full pay and back pay following the meeting with Finance Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday.

"There will be a strike for a few days during each month until our salaries are paid," Zakarneh told Reuters.

The union's stance underscored the difficulties Fayyad and the two-month-old unity government face meeting the expectations of Palestinians who have not received their full wages in more than a year, following an embargo by Israel and international aid donors against the Hamas Islamist group.

A 133-day strike by civil employees demanding wages from the Hamas government in 2006 and 2007 paralysed the Palestinian Authority. Seeking an easing of the embargo, Hamas formed the unity government in March with the secular Fatah movement which had long dominated Palestinian politics.

Hundreds of public school teachers took part in a one-day strike on Monday which turned rough when police used batons to push back protesting teachers at the Ramallah offices of the Palestinian prime minister.

Fayyad told union leaders he will pay at least half salaries to government workers, but not their full wages, because the year-old embargo remains in place. He told them the first partial payments would be made next week, Zakarneh said after the meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

NO RESOURCES

Fayyad said he understood the employees' dissatisfaction but the government did not have resources to meet their demands.

"What I have proposed to them is an arrangement whereby we commit ourselves to specific times in which we make payments," he told Reuters in an interview after meeting union chiefs.

"We obviously cannot meet the full obligation in terms of what the employees are owed each month," he said.

Fayyad is counting on receiving at least $55 million a month from Arab League members to cover about half of the Palestinian Authority's monthly payroll.

Fayyad's payments would be timed to coincide with "allowances" paid to workers through a European aid programme, which are expected to total up to $34 million a month.

Western powers cut off direct aid to the Palestinian Authority to press Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace deals.

The ruling Hamas movement formed a unity government in March with President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction in a bid to end internal fighting and ease the year-old economic embargo.

But tensions between Hamas and Fatah remain high and the Western aid ban on the Palestinian Authority remains in place.

Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister Azzam al-Ahmad, a Fatah leader, said on Monday the unity government led by Hamas should be disbanded if the embargo is not lifted within three months.

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