Khaled al-Jeratli | Hassan Ibrahim

Since the beginning of this year, the new Syrian government has begun to restructure and reorganize state institutions, with officials announcing that hundreds of thousands of employees are not actually working, alongside others described as “ghost employees” who receive salaries without real work.

According to these hypotheses, the government has removed an unknown number of employees from state institutions, through decisions of dismissal, suspension, paid or unpaid leave, as well as refusing to renew temporary contractors’ contracts, creating a sense of anxiety among public sector employees across Syria’s provinces.

At a time when displaced workers are protesting in the streets of cities and governorates, observers note that the suspension of a large number of employees from work does not only pose risks to the economic situation of the individual and their family, but it could also exacerbate social insecurity. While this doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of political security, the risk of its impact on the security situation remains plausible if an external entity decides to exploit the needs of thousands of unemployed individuals, or if they choose to protest unlawfully themselves.

In this report, Enab Baladi discusses the details of the dismissals, leaves, and suspensions that have affected employees in Syrian state institutions following the fall of the Assad regime, and their impact on the lives of employees and the institutions themselves.

The legality of these decisions remains uncertain at a time when the government has not responded to requests for comment, amid a state of ambiguity regarding employees’ visions for their professional future after years spent serving in these institutions.

Removal from work under different circumstances

Not all those dismissed or given a three-month leave, whom Enab Baladi met, received copies of the decisions that ordered their removal from work. These situations did not differ from one province to another, from Daraa to Aleppo, passing through Hama and Homs.

“Manal” (a pseudonym for a female worker in a textile factory in Hama, aged 59) told Enab Baladi that she continued working for a week after being granted her leave, unaware that she had been given a leave of absence. She later found out through lists of names posted by officials in the factory hallway.

The spinning and weaving factory in Hama resumed operations one day after the Assad regime fell on December 9, 2024, as reported by Hama Cotton Yarn Company on Facebook at that time.

Since early March, the company has launched surveys for its employees who were removed from work under vacations but did not clarify the reasons for this.

Rabia al-Homsi hails from Masyaf in western Hama and remains, until today, classified as a second-level employee at the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection in her city.

Al-Homsi (38 years old) obtained her job in 2018 through a competition organized by the ministry and continued working there until the beginning of this year when she found her name at the top of a list of employees who were granted a three-month leave, issued on January 6.

Al-Homsi believes that the selection of the lists of employees who were removed from work is marred by “great corruption,” as those close to the institution’s management were kept in their positions while many “qualified” workers lacking connections were dismissed, a sentiment echoed by “Manal.”

On February 16, the Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection announced via Facebook that it had conducted an exam to select a supply monitor among the employees granted paid leave, aiming to “enhance the efficiency of the administrative body and ensure the selection of the most competent individuals to perform control tasks in the markets.”

On January 20, the Minister of Internal Trade, Maher Khalil al-Hassan, told the Syrian news agency (SANA) that he met with the employees who were granted a three-month paid leave, responding to their inquiries regarding the internal announcement for the upcoming competition.

He added, “We lament the excessively bloated and corrupt job reality, as the number of employees is large compared to the volume of work accomplished. The employment mechanisms lack the most basic scientific standards, and continuing with them is impossible. We are working to build institutions that represent successful Syrian citizens.”

Unrenewed contracts

The cases of removal from work varied across different institutions, where some employees were granted long-term leave while contracts for contractors in some institutions were halted. This was the case for “Layal,” a pseudonym for a woman who was in the financial control apparatus in Aleppo, who said she applied for the job without any connections or favoritism and worked in this apparatus for three years, but the government refused to renew her contract after the fall of the Assad regime.

Layal told Enab Baladi that she was given promises of returning to work days after the regime fell, with a clerk from the Aleppo municipality, to which the control apparatus belongs, informing her that the government would renew her contract within days. However, she received a notification that the renewal request was rejected without providing clear reasons for the refusal.

Layal believes that her dismissal, along with other employees, occurred without reviewing their files, and they were excluded from their positions without a judicial order, legal judgment, or charge of corruption, which is illegal.

She pointed out that she continued working during January but did not receive her monthly salary for her work, believing that officials kept their acquaintances in their jobs while refusing to renew contracts for others.

On March 19, the head of the Central Financial Control Bureau, Waseem al-Mansour, issued a decision to assign central committees to prepare a draft amendment to the law governing the bureau and its organizational structure.

Al-Mansour stated, according to what was published by the bureau on its official website, that the current law and structure “do not achieve the desired vision for development and modernization, necessitating serious steps to enhance the bureau’s work and boost its efficiency.”

Employees from outside the institution

In Daraa province, southern Syria, engineer Fawzi al-Falah was granted a three-month leave, removing him from his position as director of the warehouses and head of the industrial gas committee in the province, alongside 46 employees out of 123 in the government department.

He noted that among the employees are four engineers, two lawyers, and others with diplomas from oil institutes, the most recent of whom has worked in this institution since 2000.

 

It is unfortunate to inform you that after serving in an institution affiliated with the Syrian state, they no longer need us, either through a long-term leave or through a work suspension decision.

Engineer Fawzi al-Falah, An employee removed from his position at the Fuel Branch in Daraa Governorate

 

The engineer mentioned that the dismissed employees tried to voice their objections and visited the Minister of Oil in Damascus but were unable to meet him. He pointed out an upcoming appointment scheduled between them and the Daraa governor regarding the decision to remove them from their jobs.

He objected to the government assigning a person “who hasn’t surpassed his twenties” from outside the fuel department in Daraa, who is not knowledgeable about the technical and administrative work, to manage this institution, noting that the institution itself holds experienced staff capable of running the work.

Ghosts and excluded employees… Downsizing and restructuring

The interim government of Damascus has removed thousands of employees from state institutions and the public sector. The decision affected various public service sectors, including health, education, electricity, gas, and trade, along with plans to implement administrative restructuring for public sector employees and privatizing state-owned companies.

The Minister of Finance in the interim government of Damascus, Mohammed Abazeid, stated to SANA that only 900,000 out of 1.3 million government employees are working effectively, while 400,000 are “ghost employees.” Meanwhile, the Minister of Administrative Development, Mohammed al-Sakaf, indicated that the public sector does not require more than 550,000 to 600,000 workers.

According to Minister Abazeid, the government officials were surprised to find that the number of registered employees in public entities was much higher than actual numbers on the ground. In addition to discrepancies in financial lists, there are fictitious names of individuals who receive salaries without officially clocking in at their offices, “as a result of the previous regime’s policy of nepotism and favoritism.”

“Ghost employees”

A ghost employee is anyone who benefits from a normal administrative position and receives a salary and entitlements without performing any task in return, due to their frequent or permanent absence, and without providing the required services.

Technically, a ghost employee is a person registered in the payroll system but does not work for the institution. This person may be a real individual, whether knowingly or unknowingly, listed in payroll records, or a fictitious person created by dishonest officials.

The stories of ghost employees repeatedly emerge in countries suffering from weak public financial management and high levels of corruption, constituting a serious and widespread problem.

Ghost government employees negatively impact human resources, contribute to clear leakage of public funding and corruption, and the phenomenon of ghost employees affects the credibility of the state, the rule of law on a broader scale, economic growth, and diminishes the effectiveness of public spending due to poor allocation.

The Syrian Ministry of Labor announced that it has placed a number of employees on paid leave for three months to assess their employment status, as part of a plan to identify actual jobs in the public sector, without specifying the number precisely.

The Minister of Economy, Basil Abdul Hanan, stated that the country is moving towards a “competitive market economy,” asserting that the government will work on privatizing 107 state-owned industrial companies, as most are incurring losses, while retaining “strategic” assets in the fields of energy and transportation in the hands of the public sector.

Alongside these decisions, the Ministry of Development announced that it is studying the cases of the staff dismissed by the former regime, starting with the Ministry of Education as the first phase of its work, with plans to consecutively study the dismissal cases of employees in various ministries.

The government intends to create a database for public sector employees. The Minister of Development stated that it will take about six months to establish the government employee record, with a team of 50 people assigned to the task.

Varying criteria for exclusion… Reassessment

These steps have stirred fears among the excluded employees, prompting them to take to the streets to start protests and hold sit-ins demanding justice, denouncing the “arbitrary” dismissals or exclusions, believing they are leading them and their families towards death, as their salaries barely cover their basic needs for just a week.

According to a report by Enab Baladi and testimonies from those dismissed, the criteria for dismissing employees and retaining others were varied, some with clear benchmarks, while others showed no criteria at all, with some describing it as “selective and retaliatory.”

The reasons for excluding employees were diverse, with the most significant being their presence in decision-making positions and involvement in corruption cases, including individuals wanted by courts, and “families of martyrs,” as the former regime referred to them, who were employed without qualifications as a “gift” from the ousted president Bashar al-Assad, alongside others who were surplus to the needs of their institutions.

The health sector was one of the most prominent sectors that witnessed the suspension of employees based on varying criteria. For instance, the criteria for suspending employees at Baniyas National Hospital included five points, published last January:

• Anyone who has not been committed to attending the medical facility during the past period (including those on unpaid leave).
• Anyone not on the staff of the Tartus Health Directorate.
• Anyone with over 30 years of service since the start of their first appointment.
• Those over 55 years old, provided they have completed 25 years of experience (exceptions are made for doctors, although those over 65 will be suspended).
• Anyone who does not hold a scientific qualification that matches the job position (especially for positions requiring specific diplomas).

There are some differential criteria for remaining employees after suspending those who meet the previous criteria, and Enab Baladi could not verify the validity of the conditions from the interim government of Damascus.

At the Health Directorate in Daraa, several employees protested the ministry’s decision to reduce the number of employees to 900 at the beginning of this year, and the reduction decision has yet to be implemented at the time of this report, according to an administrator in the Human Resources Department of the Daraa Health Directorate (who requested anonymity as they are not authorized to speak to the media).

The administrator told Enab Baladi that the ministry verbally informed them of the need to reduce employees to only 900 out of 1,731 who were on duty, without an official decision or any criteria established for the dismissal and exclusion of employees.

During a press conference attended by Enab Baladi, the acting Minister of Health of Syria, Maher al-Sharaa, stated that there is a surplus of personnel in the health sector, including tens of thousands of workers, thousands of guards, thousands of data entry clerks, along with engineers and non-medical staff, as well as individuals without clear field work.

He noted that the ministry has suspended many but continues to pay salaries for three months while placing them on (paid) leave, a period that is renewable until the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor can find jobs for those without qualifications, stating that this is common in multiple countries.

He clarified that all practicing medical professionals (doctors, technicians, nurses) will not be left without work, as the sector is in need, but there is poor distribution of staff, and some hospitals have more staff than needed. He added that those without medical qualifications cannot work in the medical field.

The Director of Human Development at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, Mohammed Hamroun, stated that there are no lay-offs for employees in the ministry after their evaluation by Human Resources management.

In light of administrative slack and the presence of concealed unemployment in some departments, a number of employees were granted paid leave for three months to allow for a detailed evaluation of their employment status, according to Hamroun.

After this period, the employees’ status will be reassessed, and consideration will be given to reassigning them to new roles within the ministry or determining their necessity based on the actual needs of the departments. This decision is part of efforts to improve work efficiency within the ministry and to ensure maximum benefit from available human resources.

Enab Baladi contacted the Public Relations Office in the interim government of Damascus for clarifications regarding the mechanisms and criteria for the dismissal of employees or their referral to paid leave, the state’s plan regarding the surplus mentioned, the timeline required for its implementation, and the approach to dealing with military personnel, but received no response by the time this report was published.

The legality of the dismissal steps

With the increasing number of workers and employees being laid off in various sectors, the Democratic Change Workers’ Association has established peaceful, independent democratic labor coordination groups (unaffiliated) across all provinces, under the slogan “The damages have united us, so the demands unite us; together to unify the arenas.”

The association aimed to launch protests and sit-ins by gathering in one location at the same time across all provinces, according to a statement for the formation of the unified labor coordination, of which Enab Baladi obtained a copy. However, their activities recently stopped, according to one of the coordinators, who spoke with Enab Baladi through the association’s own identifier and requested anonymity, as he did not want to limit the movement to the names of its participants, as he expressed.

The coordination official stated to Enab Baladi that the layoff decisions observed by the association varied; some came in the form of a dismissal decision, while others were in the form of a work stoppage decision, paid leave, unpaid leave, non-renewal of contracts, or contract renewals for only one month.

They added that all these decisions have created chaos among employees, throwing thousands into uncertainty, regardless of the type of dismissal decision—whether it be a layoff or leave—arguing that the absence of clear criteria under which these steps were taken is what led to this chaos.

They noted that the association, which was established in 2012, has attempted to organize protest movements against these decisions after hosting small protests in various areas and has created coordination groups in the provinces of As-Suwayda, Damascus, Aleppo, Tartus, Latakia, and Homs.

They added that the activities of the coordination groups have temporarily halted due to attempts by governmental bodies and labor unions to sway their activities and reach a solution with these groups that would lead to the end of the movement. The peaceful activism will continue in the coming period.

It is believed that the activities of these coordination groups will continue until the decisions regarding the dismissal of employees are revoked and specialized committees—legal, human rights, and administrative—are formed to study the status of the public sector and its workers.

For his part, Syrian lawyer and legal expert Aref al-Shaal told Enab Baladi that laid-off workers have the right to appeal to the administrative court against the termination, except in the case of paid leave, where the employee is still legally considered as employed.

He added that the variety of dismissal decisions is a sensitive issue that must be approached on a case-by-case basis, considering that contractors differ from permanent workers and from temporary workers, and that an employee serving as a representative of the Baath Party has a different legal status.

According to al-Shaal, each of these cases represents a different legal context that should be treated individually.

Impacts for the future: Issues requiring immediate resolution

Many countries have experienced internal wars, revolutions, or civil wars throughout history, and there are several similar experiences to what is happening in Syria in modern history, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, Iraq, Rwanda, Afghanistan, and others, according to governance researcher Dr. Sinan Hatahet.

Dr. Hatahet stated to Enab Baladi that the countries that managed to run their state institutions or rebuild their states with modest capabilities and quickly were those that were able to reconcile the old state cadres with new ones, establishing systems that support professional benefits while preventing corruption and inefficiency.

He pointed out that the Syrian experience under the Assad regime was characterized by managing all state institutions within a security system that relied on corruption, which forced the new political administration to handle the issue of senior employees with caution, suspicion, and fear of the resurgence of corrupt systems within institutions.

The researcher considered that the new Syrian administration’s caution led it to make a number of rapid decisions to isolate senior staff while the government was investigating the corruption of these employees or their affiliations, especially in many sovereign institutions like the army, security, police, and key ministries such as foreign affairs and education, as well as central administrations like provinces and municipalities.

He noted that this “corrective movement” launched by the new government has affected the new cadre’s understanding of the nature of work and their adaptation to state programs and projects, especially since the government inherited a legacy characterized by high levels of inefficiency, technical issues, and infrastructural challenges.

 

The corrective movement affected the new cadres’ understanding of the nature of work and their adaptation to state programs and projects, especially since we inherited a legacy that had the highest levels of inefficiency, technical problems, and infrastructural issues.

Sinan Hatahet, Governance Researcher

 

Hatahet questioned the possibility of state institutions training new teams to manage old cadres and employees and the capacity of the new political administration to form committees for restructuring and rehabilitating senior employees.

He continued, “We are facing a significant dilemma that divides into three serious issues for society”:

• Most long-term employees belong to the poor class.
• Most long-term employees have no livelihood resources other than their salaries.
• The rising cost of living, including housing rents, services, and food, has led to significant financial inflation for them.

He believed that the state must work as quickly as possible to solve these issues with a comprehensive vision.

Procedures driving Syrians into poverty

Among all the employees who were dismissed from their jobs, none of those contacted by Enab Baladi had a secondary job, as they are all struggling to find a way back to the institution they used to work for.

Most of them stated that they have no choice but to wait for a decision to reinstate them, despite the foggy situation, amid a lack of alternative options for earning a living other than the government job.

 

The government’s decisions to dismiss employees will push more segments of Syrians into poverty, at a time when some ministries are lacking staff, such as the Ministries of Education and Health, while not denying that corruption has existed in the public administration of the state for decades.

Dr. Joseph Daher, Researcher in political economy

 

Dr. Joseph Daher believes that the government’s decisions to dismiss employees will push more segments of Syrians into poverty, at a time when some ministries are lacking staff, such as the Ministries of Education and Health. He does not deny that corruption has existed in the public administration for decades, which accelerated particularly after 2011, coinciding with an increase in poverty during the same period.

Ninety percent of Syrians live below the poverty line, and 16.7 million people, which is three out of every four people in Syria, will rely on humanitarian aid by 2024, according to figures published by the United Nations.

Syrians face difficulty returning to their destroyed towns and villages, and the extensive sanctions negatively affect reconstruction efforts, as it is estimated that Syria needs over $250 billion to rebuild the country, including infrastructure, basic services, and economic recovery.

Daher considered these measures as part of a broader dynamic of austerity measures, such as increasing the price of subsidized bread from 400 Syrian pounds (for 1100 grams) to 4000 Syrian pounds (for 1500 grams), and announcing the end of bread subsidies in the following months. These austerity measures were accompanied by a desire to liberalize and privatize the economy and state assets, as the new government supports the “neoliberal model,” according to the researcher.

Daher pointed out that the interim government of Damascus should not make decisions that strategically impact the economic future of the country, as it is doing currently (such as austerity measures, ending subsidies, privatizing state assets, and liberalizing prices), considering that the government in its current form lacks the political legitimacy to make such decisions.

Daher asserted that the accumulation of these decisions negatively impacts the population, whereas the government should be doing the opposite, striving to improve the conditions of the Syrians.

Threat of social insecurity

The interim government of Damascus is working on building a database for public sector employees through an electronic survey that is expected to be completed within six months, with a team of 50 employees assigned to the task, according to previous announcements by the government.

The Minister of Administrative Development, Mohammed al-Sakaf, stated days ago that the state “will only need between 550,000 to 600,000 employees,” which is less than half of the current number.

Looking at these figures, upcoming changes will exclude hundreds of thousands of employees who rely on their monthly salaries from government institutions, despite their low amounts.

The average salary in Syria is 145,000 Syrian pounds, according to the Salary Explorer website, specialized in monitoring salary scales around the world, equivalent to about 14 US dollars at the current exchange rate of the pound against the dollar, according to the S-P Today website.

Dr. Joseph Daher, a researcher in political economy, sees that despite the low value of salaries in Syria, many employees depend on their work in public institutions as their main source of income.

He added that stopping a large number of employees from working will exacerbate social insecurity, not necessarily political insecurity, and this could deepen the sense of injustice among some employees.

 

Stopping large numbers of employees from work will exacerbate social insecurity, and not necessarily political insecurity, and that will deepen the sense of injustice among some employees.

Joseph Daher, Researcher in political economy

 

Daher considered that instead of getting rid of state employees without following any clear methodology, especially in the current economic crisis and political transition, the government should review its public expenditure and work to assess the number of employees, organize ministries and state companies and their social and economic impacts, among other aspects.

He emphasized the necessity of taking those steps on several key levels, including defending public services of the state and workers’ rights, freezing any layoffs or temporary suspensions of workers, and stopping all austerity measures and subsidy cuts, in addition to privatizing companies and state assets.

He considered that these decisions (dismissals of employees) do not only have economic consequences but also affect the sovereignty of the state, particularly concerning ports, airports, and major infrastructure, in addition to social and economic effects through raising the cost of living by privatizing necessary social services.

 

The inability of large sectors of the population to understand how to manage their daily lives and meet their basic needs, such as housing rents, electricity, school fees, and so on, prevents them from engaging and participating in democratic life, in which they have a direct and objective interest in achieving success.

Joseph Daher, Researcher in political economy

 

In a broader context, there is a need to improve social and economic conditions in the country’s future, which is essential for expanding the population’s participation in discussions about democratic rights during the transition phase and beyond.

Daher considered that the inability of large segments of the population to understand how to manage their daily lives and cover their basic needs, including rent, electricity, and school fees, prevents them from engaging and participating in democratic life, which they have a direct and objective interest in succeeding.