Libya's Teachers Launch Nationwide Open-Ended Strike Over Pay as Other Unions Threaten to Join

Public school teachers across Libya have escalated their long-running salary protests into a nationwide, open-ended strike, keeping students out of classrooms and drawing support from other labour unions that are now threatening to take similar action. The walkout, which began as scattered sit-ins in mid-September, has grown into one of the most significant challenges to Libya's fragmented authorities in recent years.

The unrest started on September 13, the very day the new academic year was supposed to begin. Instead of returning to their classrooms, teachers staged sit-ins outside schools and government buildings in the capital, Tripoli. Two weeks later, the country's teachers union raised the stakes by declaring a nationwide strike, a move that has suspended schooling throughout the country.

The dispute touches both halves of Libya's divided political landscape. In the west, the internationally recognised Government of National Unity (GNU), led by Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and based in Tripoli, holds power. In the east, renegade military commander Khalifa Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army exercises control. Teachers on both sides have joined the strike, underscoring how deeply economic grievances cut across political fault lines.

On Sunday, several unions representing other sectors announced they would join the strike unless the government opened talks to address what they describe as a mounting cost-of-living crisis. The warning broadens the standoff beyond education and raises the prospect of wider industrial action at a time when Libyan households are already struggling with rising prices.

Prime Minister Dbeibah responded by convening a meeting with cabinet members, including Finance Minister Rashid Boughofa, to discuss how to handle the crisis. According to the source material, their talks centred on a proposal for a unified pay system that would apply across all sectors and state institutions. However, implementing higher pay for teachers would require a government decision, parliamentary approval and banking procedures, meaning any resolution is unlikely to come quickly.

Teachers say their salaries have eroded steadily, arrears remain unpaid, benefits are inadequate and school facilities are deteriorating. They are demanding an immediate halt to what they call the "erosion of workers' incomes", pointing to worsening economic and living conditions across the country. Principal Muftah Khalifa told Al Jazeera Arabic that teachers were protesting the government's failure to respond to repeated calls for higher and unified wages, health insurance, and protection both on and off school grounds.

The shortages are tangible. Teachers told the Reuters news agency that schools lack computer labs and that desks are often too dilapidated to use. Staff and parents frequently end up paying for equipment out of their own pockets, a burden that has fuelled resentment among educators already squeezed by inflation.

A central demand is the adoption of a unified pay system that would correct large disparities in compensation between workers in different sectors. That call has now been taken up by other unions, giving the teachers' movement a broader base of support. Libya's unions said on Sunday that any such system must account for changes in the cost of living and for fluctuations in the dinar-to-US-dollar exchange rate. Retirees have separately demanded the implementation of previous agreements covering pensioners.

The unions also insisted that no "arbitrary or punitive" measures be taken against workers, retirees or union leaders because of their protest activities. In addition, they urged Libya's attorney general to move swiftly against any corruption involving public spending, framing their demands as part of a wider push for accountability.

The scale of Libya's education workforce illustrates why the dispute carries such weight. An education budget brief prepared by the National Council for Economic and Social Development with UNICEF found that 91 percent of the education budget goes to salaries, with the remainder covering school costs such as equipment. In 2024, the sector employed 560,000 people, including roughly 270,000 teachers in basic and secondary education — a striking figure for a country of about 7.5 million people.

The legal framework for teachers' pay dates back to 2018, when the GNU passed Law No 4 to regulate salaries, allowances and benefits for education workers. The law also provides for health and social care, insurance against illness and occupational hazards, and protection for teachers and their families. In September 2021, the GNU ordered pay rises in line with the law, but the measure failed to resolve the problem of salary arrears, which remain a core grievance.

The dispute escalated sharply after union chiefs and teachers' representatives from western Libya walked out of a meeting convened by the Ministry of Education. Ashraf Abu Rawi, head of the Tripoli teachers union, told Al Jazeera that unions felt the authorities had not taken their demands seriously. The teachers union has since warned the Ministry of Education against reopening schools, saying any such attempt would only provoke further escalation.

The government has acknowledged that the teachers' demands are legitimate while insisting that students' rights must also be weighed. That balancing act is reflected among parents. Osama Abboud, a father of two pupils, said the teachers' demands were justified and that parents supported them, but he also urged educators to consider their students' futures and keep working while pursuing their claims.

Libya has grappled with economic and political instability since the 2011 uprising that ended Muammar Gaddafi's rule. In April 2026, the rival legislative bodies of the country's divided east and west agreed on a unified budget for the first time in more than a decade, a rare moment of consensus. The current strike tests whether that fragile cooperation can translate into concrete relief for public-sector workers.

With classrooms empty, students in cities such as Tripoli and Benghazi are left waiting. In Benghazi, young people were seen playing football during the closures caused by the sit-ins. For now, the teachers' union shows no sign of backing down, and with other sectors poised to join, the pressure on Libya's rival authorities to deliver a credible pay settlement is mounting.