7 MoFA employees demand 3-month salary, contract renewal

KABUL (Pajhwok): Seven contract-based employees of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Wednesday said their contracts were not renewed and their three months salaries were also pending.

The MoFA referred the salary pending issue to the Ministry of Finance (MoF) which said it had not pledged to pay these employees.

Matiul HaqQasami, one of the employees, told Pajhwok Afghan News they began work in the MoFA translation department based on a contract in March 2020.

He said: “When our one year long contract ended, we hoped the contracts would be renewed and we continued work for another three months, but now the MoFA has informed us that our contracts are not going to be renewed.”

“When we asked about our pending salaries, the Public Relations Department said that in order to pay your salaries there is need for a three-month contract to be signed with you. We signed three months contracts but later it was not agreed with the ministry.”

Qasami said their contracts should have been renewed for one year in line with article 14 of the labour law and their three month salary should be paid in time.

He said they shared the issue with the ministry often but it remained unresolved.

Assistant MoFA Spokesperson Mansour Khaliqyar said these posts were offered for open competition and qualified individual were hired. When asked about the pending salaries, he said this matter should be referred to the MoF.

The MoFA in a letter dated November 17/2020 to the MoF wrote: “Seven translators of the Public Relations Department of the MoFA served from March 2020 against 120,000afs salary each. And they also worked this year in Jan, Feb and March. According to the labour law if both parties to the contract do not renew their old contract or revoke it with one month, the contract remains as it is signed and according to the labour law their salaries shall be issued.”

Deputy Finance Minister Abdul HaseenZadran in response to the letter wrote: “Regarding the salaries of translators, there is need for approval from the MoF first and last year the Finance Ministry approval was not sought about this contract, therefore this matter is an internal issue of the Public Relations Department of the ministry and the MoF offered its excuse in this regard.”

nh/ma