Economic experts highlighted the poor economic conditions in the Gaza Strip, the recession that hangs over various facets of economic activity, and the impact on the worker´s daily wage.
The poor economic conditions and the lack of application of the minimum wage formed the main reason behind the lower of the wages of the worker in the Gaza market, to reach between half a dollar and $ 1 per hour, the experts said.
Employees and workers in more than one commercial complex "mall" disclosed the amount of the fare they received, either monthly or for each working day, where one of them, a staff member with a fixed monthly wage at a commercial center in Gaza, indicated that the monthly salary rate for non-married business centers employees is $ 200, reaching This salary is best for a staff member who is married to $ 300 per month.
The worker, who preferred not to mention his name, pointed out that the number of working hours in the one operational cycle is 10 hours, starting at the morning staff from 8 am to 6 pm, and the evening period from 1 pm to 11 am .
He indicated that some centers returned to the seasonal operation of the worker as a holiday period, giving the worker a daily fare of $ 15 for each working day during that season, which lasts from one week to ten days.
He explained that three workers in the center where he worked had recently left their jobs and the center´s management did not bring new workers instead because of poor economic conditions and low sales of the mall.
In another shopping mall, his administration refused to talk about the value of his workers´ wages, one worker said that he was receiving half a dollar for every hour of work in the seasons, showing that he was employed by his peers at supermarkets and shops selling clothes on a daily fee of half a dollar per hour, and there are those who work for I´d like to pay for a daily fare of $ 10 a day, and someone who works with a fixed monthly salary with different companies is $ 150 a month, which means less dollars per hour.
In separate talks on the phenomenon of low wages of workers in the labor market in the governors of Gaza, the Secretary General of the General Federation of Palestinian Trade Unions, Shaher Saad, stressed the necessity of commitment in implementing the minimum wage, which is $ 400 , noting that when this limit was taken into account his malamat between the bank and Gaza.
Saad said the minimum wage for working in the West Bank is estimated at $ 20, while in fact there is no one working in the West Bank, with a worker´s wage at the rate of about $ 30 a day.
"I have information on the value of the low wages paid to the workers in the Gaza market, where the union recently prepared a study on the wage situation in the sector, and stated that there is injustice to the workers in particular in agriculture and professions associated with this sector, "he said.
Saad said that in a speech to be delivered tomorrow at the International Labor Organization (ILO) Conference in Geneva, he will review labor market conditions, unemployment and poverty, and the amount to which the population of the sector depend on relief assistance, stressing the importance of activating trade union work in order to implement the minimum wage.
"In light of the difficult economic conditions affecting the Gaza Strip due to the 13-year-old Israeli blockade, the low productivity of all activities and the decline in their indicators, the search for jobs in the Gaza Strip has become a fantasy, said Maher al-Tabar, director of public relations at the Gaza Chamber of Commerce. The supply is much more than demand, resulting in low wages as some workers receive $ 150 per month for working hours beyond what is allowed in the Palestinian labor law. "
According to the impression, the indicators of the Gaza economy reflect the deterioration of living conditions in the light of the high unemployment rate in the Gaza Strip during the year 2018 to 52% and there are 300,000 unemployed people and the unemployment rate among graduates in the age group 20-29 years reached 69% for the same year, 53% of the poverty rate and 68% of the absence of food in families in the Gaza Strip, and more than 1 million people receive assistance from UNRWA and international, Arab and Islamic Relief institutions operating in the Gaza Strip.
Al-Tabba stressed that the phenomenon of low wages and increasing the number of working hours requires the Ministry of Labor as the government body supervising the application of labor law to intervene promptly and follow up this phenomenon and try to reduce it
