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Strike saga

Sep 23,2019 - Last updated at Sep 23,2019

Prime Minister Omar Razzaz has had to contend with two unavoidable and intractable crises not of his making: One at the start of his tenure, and now another one a year later. 

The first was, of course, the death of scores of schoolchildren in a flash flood while on an outing during the weekend. There was not much that the prime minister could have done to prevent that disaster. The school tragedy is almost forgotten except for the parents of the children who lost their loved ones because no one bothered to check on weather conditions before approving the field trip. 

But the second one is still ongoing and unfolding day by day, involving the suspension of public school classrooms because of an open-ended strike called by the teachers’ union. 

In retrospect, perhaps the government could have handled this second  crisis differently  by following a procedure that most countries apply when faced with a similar strike in an essential service.

 Here, the government really had two choices: Either to honour an alleged promise to give teachers a 50-per cent raise after verifying its veracity. Once it is established that the government at the time did in fact make such a promise, then it should be honoured even though its cost is beyond the means of the country. What is at stake here is the right to education, and this right has no price tag. 

The second way of dealing with the crisis is to go to a court with jurisdiction over labour disputes. If such a court does not exist, then this is a major omission in our judicial system which should be rectified soon. 

But if there is a court with jurisdiction over labour disputes, the government could have asked for a court order to suspend the strike, pending the resolution of the claim of the teachers’ union. This is what most countries do when faced with a similar dilemma. 

If the teachers’ union disobeys the court order, then it becomes a new ball game altogether. In such a case, the teachers’ union  will be held accountable, or even face a jail sentence. 

The point here is to get the court system to intervene and pronounce its verdict. Then it would no longer be a confrontation between the government and the teachers, but rather between the judiciary and the teachers. 

If even that does not work, then nothing will work except the capitulation of one side to the other.

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