Yemen: West Mukalla Court Orders Authorities to Reinstate Teacher Incentives Starting January 2026

Arab Sea Newspaper - Follow-ups

The West Mukalla Primary Court issued a ruling in the lawsuit filed by the Coast Teachers and Educators Syndicate against the Governor of Hadramout and the Director of the Education Office in the Coast, regarding the contractual positions file and the rights of contractors in the education sector. The ruling stipulated obligating the authorities to review the surplus contractual positions and cancel them within three months, and to direct the salaries and incentives of those positions to the benefit of education employees and contractors as an increase in incentives. It also stipulated raising incentives by no less than 60% starting from January 2026. The ruling also included following up on the procedures for regularizing contractors and calculating their years of service, completing settlements and disbursing allowances retroactively, in addition to coordinating with labor unions to prepare a vision for the wage structure in proportion to the high cost of living. It obligated the authorities to disburse salaries and incentives before the first week of each month, with the provision of one month's salary in the event of a delay in disbursement from the Ministry of Finance, in exchange for the syndicate's commitment not to call for a strike except in accordance with the law. This development comes in light of a chronic crisis suffered by the education sector since the outbreak of the war, as tens of thousands of teachers in various regions of the country face problems related to delayed salaries, weak incentives, and stalled job settlements. Hadramout has witnessed repeated protests and strikes in recent years led by teachers' unions to demand the improvement of their conditions and address what the union describes as "phantom positions" or "surplus contractual positions" that consume part of the education budget without actual benefit.