Getahun Tsegaye
Staff Reporter
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – Enat Party, in a press statement on current affairs released yesterday, called on the government to improve the dire living standards of workers. The party announced that the lives of employees in Ethiopia have been significantly deteriorating recently, with many complaining that their salaries are no longer sufficient to cover rent.
The statement further noted that doctors who recently began a movement demanding adequate pay and benefits, stating their current income is insufficient for survival, have since been politically targeted, persecuted, and imprisoned.
Additionally, the statement criticized the government, asserting that when teachers cried out about their inability to feed their children, there was no solution beyond flattery, intimidation, and even the condescending gesture of dressing them in academic gowns and announcing, “Teachers have become beneficiaries of a worthy program.”
In connection with this, Enat Party mentioned in its statement that recent official reports indicate workers are resorting to begging for leftover hotel food and are being subjected to charity from various religious institutions, such as churches and mosques.
The statement added that despite this reality, the ruling Prosperity Party has been accused of not wanting to alleviate hunger by cutting even a quarter of the budget allocated for park and palace construction and drone purchases.
The statement further condemned the government, stating that the money it borrows from various financial institutions, including the World Bank and IMF, is “mortgaging the nation’s existence to prolong its rule.” It also asserted that the government is deaf to the cries of the societal segments that inherit the accumulating debt. According to the statement, this has put approximately 4 million government employees and their surrounding families at risk.
The statement cited the 2024 United Nations Development Program (UNDP) report, based on 2019 data, which shows that over 68.8% of Ethiopians are living in multidimensional poverty. It also noted that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently reported that in 2024, one in five Ethiopians (21.4 million people) will require humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs.
Enat Party also outlined multiple issues it alleged the government isn’t executing, including the current economic weakening and inflation, the severe security problems in the country, the heavy taxes imposed on traders, along with contributions for corridor development, and “countless” other contributions” have led all Ethiopians to a severe economic crisis, loss, stress, and high cost of living.
“Overall, in our party’s assessment, we believe that the worker has perhaps been made a political pawn/prisoner,” the statement read.
Enat Party also put forth five key proposals that the government should undertake. First, it urged workers to intensify their peaceful and legal struggle for their rights at every opportune moment. Second, it called for the proposed tax-exempt monthly income presented to Parliament to be increased beyond the current proposal, considering the depreciation of money, and for income tax reductions for all employees earning below 14,000 Birr per month.
Third, the Party called on the government to immediately consider a salary increment for civil servants in light of the current decline in money’s purchasing power.
Fourth, it urged the government to refrain from creating temporary appeasements and instead devise economic policies that control the cost of living.
Finally, it announced that the proposed employee reduction by the Federal Civil Service Commission is inseparable from “mass destruction” and therefore should be stopped.
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