Education Ministry explains salary delays for teachers

On October 7, Khushnudbek Khudoyberdiev, the First Deputy Director of the National News Agency (UzA), announced that he had spoken with officials from the Ministry of Preschool and School Education. According to Khudoyberdiev, the ministry confirmed that all technical problems had been resolved and that the process of calculating teachers' salaries was underway. By the evening of October 7, the ministry reported that salaries had been paid to 50% of teachers.

However, as of midday on October 8, some teachers were still awaiting their wages. Additional concerns were raised regarding salary discrepancies linked to teacher qualification issues, with promises that the differences would be rectified in the following month.

One teacher, speaking anonymously to Gazeta.uz, noted that under their employment contract, salaries should be paid by the first day of each month, although payment is usually processed by the second or third day.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, as of 9:00 a.m. on October 9, 95% of teachers had received their salaries, with efforts underway to ensure the remaining payments would be made by the end of the day. The ministry also reported that 98% of wages for employees of all budget-funded organizations had been processed.

In accordance with Article 333 of the Labor Code, employers are required to compensate employees for delayed wage payments. The compensation is calculated based on the Central Bank’s refinancing rate for each day of delay, starting from the day after the missed payment deadline. Currently, the compensation rate is set at 0.74%.

The Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction has also reminded employees that in cases where compensation is not paid, workers can contact the State Labor Inspectorate, which will take measures to recover the owed compensation. The Inspectorate can be reached at (71) 200-06-00 or (71) 239-41-12.