Teachers ask for pay pegged to the street rate

TALAS — The Teachers' and Educators' Union yesterday asked the government to index the pay of teachers and other public employees to the street rate of the som, which has risen to about 9.5 to the US dollar at the bazaars against the official 8.40. The union, the largest affiliate of the Federation of Trade Unions of Irad with about 38,000 members, said a teacher's monthly pay had lost about an eighth of its value in dollars since the spring.

"Our members pay their rent in dollars, buy their shoes in dollars and send their children to Almaty for a scan in dollars," said Rahat Osmon kyzy, the history teacher from Talas who has chaired the union since 2018. "They are paid in som at a rate no shop in Talas uses. We are not asking for a rise. We are asking to stand still."

The Ministry of Economy said public wages were "set in som and paid in som" and that the official rate was unchanged. A spokesman said indexation "to an unofficial quotation in a small cash market" would be "neither lawful nor prudent".

The union's demand covers teachers in the Russian-language schools of Nurzhan, and the three civic-list deputies from Nurzhan said they would raise it in the Mejlis. Ms. Osmon kyzy said the union welcomed support "from anyone who has a pay slip", but "does not choose candidates".