Version imprimableFor more than a month, the El-Maarouf hospital in Moroni, the capital of the Comoros archipelago, has been paralyzed by a strike by contract health workers — nearly five hundred people in total. The movement is about wage demands and improving working conditions.
Equal pay for equal work
Two demands made by the strike are considered to be major: the revaluation of on-call premiums, from 6 to 10 euros, and the alignment of salaries with those of their civil servant colleagues. The salary of a contract worker is currently 57,500 Comorian francs (about 116 euros), compared with 100,000 francs (201 euros) for a civil servant.
Although this inequality has persisted for a long time, it is no longer tolerated, especially since the authorities had already promised, during previous conflicts, to correct the situation. These commitments have never been kept, as has the payment of salary arrears related to on-call duty: out of eight months of delay, only three have been regularized.
The strikers have formed a “staff committee”, responsible for leading the movement and conducting negotiations. The country’s two main trade union centres — the Comoros Workers’ Confederation (CTTC) and the Comoros Workers’ Confederation (CTC) — have expressed their support. They believe that unequal treatment violates Convention No. 100 on Equal Pay and Convention No. 111 on Discrimination in Employment of the International Labour Organization.
Popular discontent
On 10 March, the day after the strike began, the hospital management sent a letter to all the strikers, contesting the legality of the movement, for lack of notice, and threatening the staff with disciplinary and administrative sanctions. For Zainoudine Ahamada, representative of the “staff committee”, this mobilization is a continuation of the 2024 conflict, during which the authorities had committed to opening negotiations on wage alignment.
Paradoxically, while an investment of fifty-five million euros is planned for the renovation and expansion of the hospital, no budget has been set aside to establish equal pay between contract and permanent staff.
The conflict has had a significant impact on the population, as the El-Maarouf hospital remains the reference facility in the Comoros. Several civil society organizations have called for a mobilization to put pressure on the authorities.
During his speech on the state of the nation, Comoros president Azali Assoumani declared: “Our objective is to strengthen the health sovereignty of our country. Indeed, a nation that does not care for and train its children is a nation without a future.” One would like to add: the same goes for a nation that has contempt for its workers.
16 April 2026
Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.
